14 DAY TRIAL // Although it came from an unofficial channel, a Hulu employee recently claimed that advertisements might soon be dropped and subscription fee will be increased.
This was mentioned on the Hulu Support Twitter account, and the message in question reads: “We’re currently an ad-supported service but looking into the option of a higher price ad-free version.”
Even since it was launched, the service gained its revenue from ads, considering even its Plus accounts still integrate them.
Currently, Hulu Plus “features limited advertising. [m]any movies have no commercial interruption,” therefore paying a monthly subscription will not remove the ads completely.
Hence, the aforementioned tweet comes as a great surprise, even though it could also come from someone who is not familiar with the situation.
On the other hand, since the tweet has not been removed, it might also be interpreted as a sign that Hulu is testing the waters for user impressions.
Ads are typically labeled as annoying, since they tend to distract the user’s attention from the movie they are currently watching.
However, not all Hulu Plus members might be willing to take out more money from their pockets on a monthly basis for the same content they currently get.
Either way, the Hulu Support tweet has helped the company land another series of headlines in the online media.
Hulu has been constantly in the news lately, mostly because there were so many rumors about other large companies looking to buy it out (which, so far, did not materialize).
Yahoo was the first one to place an offer to Hulu, despite the fact that there was never an announcement that the video streaming service was even up for sale.
Google and Microsoft supposedly joined in with their own bids, and negotiations were carried out for several weeks, with no apparent result.
Either way, even if Hulu is considering to sell, they are currently focused in coming up with the best plan to strike a balance between customer satisfaction and revenue, even if this means no ads and higher fees.