Bingeing your favorite shows like The Handmaid’s Tale or Little Fires Everywhere as well as newly released titles like Nine Perfect Strangers and Only Murders In the Building is about to get a little more expensive. Hulu, one of the major players in the streaming wars, is set to raise the price of both its ad-supported and ad-free subscriptions by $1 beginning next month.
Current Hulu subscribers tuning into the service on Tuesday began to receive notifications of the planned price hike, which is set to take effect on Friday, Oct. 8 and will impact both existing and new subscribers. In an email sent to subscribers, the company said “the price adjustment will be reflected in your first billing cycle on or after October 8” and “your payment method on file will be charged the new price unless you cancel before the start of your first billing cycle on or after October 8.” The price hike will see the ad-supported plan jump from $5.99 to $6.99 a month, while the ad-free tier will increase from $11.99 to $12.99 a month. The live TV plans will not be affected by the price hike, with Hulu having raised the price on those plans back in December 2020, resulting in a price increase of $10 per month for its Hulu + Live TV service, which now costs $65 per month.
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The price hike seems to be an effort to push subscribers towards the Disney streaming bundle. During the company’s Aug. 12 earnings call, according to Variety, Disney CEO Bob Chapek said a “good chunk of our marketing now is going toward the bundle.” The Disney streaming bundle includes Disney+, Hulu with ads, and ESPN+ for $13.99 a month. However, some have steered away from the bundle due to the fact that there is no option for an ad-free Hulu upgrade. Still, Chapek explained that “while we enjoy extremely low churn rates on our individual services, the churn rates on the bundle are even lower — surprisingly low even for us.”
The upcoming price hike will mark the first increase ever for the streaming service’s ad-free tier and will be the first in nearly three years for the ad-based tier. Back in January 2019, the streamer, in a surprising move, dropped the price of its basic, ad-supported plan to $5.99 per month. That drop marked a $2 decrease from the former $7.99 price tag.
Hulu, which you can subscribe to here, currently boasts more a total of 42.8 million paid subscribers in the U.S., according to August 2021 figures. The Hollywood Reporter notes 39.1 million accounts are subscribed to its SVOD subscription and 3.7 million subscribed to its live TV and SVOD plan. The streamer is home to an expansive content catalog that includes both licensed and original programming.
