Hulu Will Get Rid of Free TV Service (Sort Of), Prioritizing Paid Subscriptions
Hulu has always had a weird business model. You can watch most of its content for free, pay extra to get the latest content, and pay even more to watch it ad-free. Now the free tier is leaving. Mostly.
Over the next few days, Hulu will start notifying free users when the free tier expires. They will be offered a free trial of a paid subscription if they want to try it out. Ironically, Hulu will continue to offer its collection of free content through licensing agreements with distribution partners such as Comcast, as well as a new TV hub on Yahoo called Yahoo View. However, if you want Hulu directly, you’ll have to start paying for it.
Otherwise, Hulu’s plans look like they’ll stay the same. You can pay $ 8 per month for access to the complete Hulu library, or $ 12 per month for the same library without ads (mostly). It honestly sucks for those of us who don’t mind multiple advertisements in exchange for free shows. Without that tier and the $ 12 premium for ad-free use, Hulu looks a lot more expensive. On the other hand, Hulu collects a lot of content that you could get on Netflix before , so it might be worth it for some people.
Hulu Drops Free TV | Hollywood Reporter