Hulu Drops Basic Plan Cost After Netflix Price Hike
On Wednesday, Hulu announced plans to update its pricing, dropping the cost of its basic plan by $2. The announcement comes just a week after Hulu’s top competitor Netflix announced it is raising its plan prices across the board, according to CNN.
Hulu’s basic plan will drop from $8 per month to just $6 per month. It will still include ads. The on-demand ad-free version will remain the same at $12 per month. However, not all of Hulu’s prices are dropping; the cost of its Live TV plan has jumped from $40 to $45 per month.
This news comes only a week after Netflix announced it will be raising prices for its plans. Every single plan is increasing in cost by $1-$2. The basic plan for Netflix will end up costing users about $9 per month. Unlike Hulu, Netflix does not currently offer live television streaming services. Netflix also does not use ads on any plan — although there are rumors that this situation could soon change.
Netflix has been recently toying with the idea of incorporating ads for their own original material across the platform. There have been several models tested to gauge customer response. Unfortunately for Netflix, the reaction has been overwhelmingly negative.
In fact, in a recent study published by TrustedReviews, it was determined that 57 percent of UK Netflix users would cancel their service if the company chose to start showing ads. This could prove disastrous for Netflix, both abroad and internationally. Meanwhile, other streaming services are popping up every day, increasing the level of competition in the field — and putting rising pressure on Netflix to stay at the top of its game.
Hulu is easily Netflix’s top competition, and the company has been doing exceedingly well. Besides garnering its first Oscar nomination for the documentary Minding the Gap, Hulu also got the jump on Netflix regarding their dueling Fyre Festival documentaries. The Hulu version dropped days before the Netflix one, and even mentioned the competing film during the course of the documentary.
Hulu also saw its customer base grow significantly in 2018, adding about 5.7 million paid domestic subscribers. Still, it’s a distant second to Netflix. Although Hulu has 58 million subscribers across the country, Netflix has over 139 million paid subscribers from all around the world.
New members can expect to be immediately charged the new prices for Netflix subscriptions. Paid subscribers will see their accounts adjusted over the course of the next few months as the company rolls out the new price plan. Hulu’s new pricing plan will go into full effect on February 26.
