Providing market intelligence for more than 35 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

A Coldplay kiss cam goes viral and a CEO quits as morality police weigh in

At the same time, the prevalence of doorbell cameras, video boards, and retail and government surveillance systems create more ways for people to be filmed. With the massive growth of video devices in...

Why It’s Better To Not Assume Customers Want AI

A separate study described in the WSJ article, conducted by Parks Associates, confirms this trend. Of roughly 4,000 Americans surveyed, 18% said AI would make them more likely to buy, 24% said less li...

Amenity fees and resident demand for technology

A white paper by Parks Associates, developed in partnership with Groove Technology Solutions, examines the dynamics driving the adoption of technology amenities in multifamily rentals. It explores...

How Hackers Crippled Iran’s Financial System

We looked at a second study that just released from a market research company called Parks Associates that also found a little more hesitancy to buy a product if AI were mentioned. It wasn't like it w...