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

10 Indications 2018 Will be a Big Year for Smart Home Installations

In the period of just one year, big-box retailers including Best Buy, Lowe’s, Apple, Target and Sears, dramatically increased shelf space and visibility for smart-home devices. Even Whole Foods, acqui...

What Happens When Amazon Acquires a ‘Real’ Security Company Like Vivint, Guardian or Brink’s?

Professional security dealers report 36% of their alarm systems include networked cameras, according to smart-home research firm Parks Associates. The pros even manage to attach smart thermostats t...

Top 5 Home Tech Trends and Opportunities for 2017: From Voice Control to VR

Parks Associates research indicates 40 percent of U.S. smartphone owners use voice-recognition software, generally eclipsing the use of phones for streaming music to speakers or video to a second scre...

Join the Dots!

The Zigbee Alliance and Thread Group say this is the first time developers can confidently use an established, open, and interoperable IoT language over a low-power wireless IP network, which will hel...