Providing Market Intelligence for 40 Years

In The News

Hulu Adds (Mostly) Ad-Free Subscription Service

Hulu CEO Mike Hopkins chalked up the exceptions to rights held by studios on select series. “They have other commitments that they couldn’t free them up for a complete commercial-free offering,” he said, adding that the service will clearly delineate the exceptions to users before they stream those series.

Other series that will have pre-roll include four ABC series: “How to Get Away with Murder,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Once Upon a Time,” “Agents of SHIELD,” and an NBC series, “Grimm.”

Hulu is making the move in response to subscriber complaints voiced in various forms of consumer research about having to pay yet still watch ads. Earlier this month, a Parks Associates survey found that half of Hulu subscribers have canceled service over the past 12 months, compared to just 9% for Netflix over the same span.

The new subscription option brings Hulu in line with its commercial-free rivals Netflix, which remains several dollars cheaper than Hulu depending on which rate its own subscribers pay, and Amazon Prime, which charges $99 per year for access to its content library in addition to free two-day shipping.

From the article "Hulu Adds (Mostly) Ad-Free Subscription Service" by Andrew Wallenstein. 

Previously In The News

The FCC Pulled A Game-Changer

While government is often well intentioned, the end result is often lacking. This ruling, however, is huge and will affect everyone within the TV hardware and software ecosystems, from content creator...

UK Wearables Market Second In Europe

"The expansion of mobile device platforms to wearable form factors creates many opportunities for developers to build new services and applications," said Harry Wang, director, health and mobile produ...

Amazon & Roku Control Almost 70% of The US Streaming Player Market

We have known for some time now that Roku and Amazon have dominated the United States streaming market. Now according to Parks Associates Roku and Amazon now control almost 70% of the market. This lea...

The Idiocy of Things Requires an “Information Habeas Corpus”!

The public is awakening to the new Orwellian threat of big data while acknowledging all its potential benefits. We do not need many of the products promoted for profit in the Internet of Things. New s...