Hulu has once again decided to raise the price of its Live TV subscription service. The streaming service has informed its customers that the raised price would be effective from October 8. Hulu has said that it would charge a dollar extra for both its ad-supported and ad-free tier. While the former version will cost USD 6.99, the latter would now cost USD 12.99. Earlier, the subscribers were paying were USD 5.99 and 11.99 respectively. The changes have been conveyed to subscribers via email. It has been clarified in the mail that the increase would not affect rates for the Disney bundle or live TV service of Hulu.
Most importantly, the increase in prices will have no impact on plans where Hulu is bundled with Disney+. This is most probably done to motivate customers to pay for a package that includes its own flagship streaming product. After the new price is implemented next month, the difference between the cost of Hulu with No Ads and the package that includes Hulu along with Disney+ and ESPN+ would be just USD 1. This will make the Disney Bundle look like a more value for money offer, which is exactly what the company wants users to think.
Hulu, which was launched in 2007, was fully taken over by Disney in 2019 after buying Comcast’s stake. Hulu was made available to users much earlier than the recent ad-supported offerings were launched. It has made steady progress in terms of revenue from ads. The total ad revenue of Hulu from ads this year is expected to be around USD 3 billion. Moreover, Hulu is behind Disney+ in terms of subscribers. But Hulu is the one that is leading when it comes to average monthly revenue per user. Hulu now has a total of 42.8 million total subscribers. According to data, this is an increase of around 21 per cent year-over-year.