Hulu exceeds 20 million subscribers; offline viewing coming soon

Hulu now has over 20 million U.S. subscribers up from more than 17 million it claimed in January, the company announced Wednesday. It will also now allow subscribers to download shows to watch offline sometime in the near future.

Subscribers on both the ad-supported and non-commercial plans will now have the ability to download content for offline viewing, a feature Amazon and Netflix have both had for some time.

However, ad-supported plan subscribers will see commercials along with their shows and will not be able to fast-forward through the advertisements. In a statement Wednesday before the company’s presentation in New York at the UpFront conference for media executives, Hulu said it is the first company in the industry to support downloads with advertising.

What is not known is which programs will be made available for offline viewing or when the feature will launch.

The company also confirmed the return of a number of shows to Hulu as well as new ones.

Among the new shows include the limited series Four Weddings and a Funeral based on the 1994 British romantic comedy film, Ramy, a comedy series based on the real-life experiences and comedy of Ramy Youssef, and the brand new horror event series Into The Dark.

Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale will return for a third season, and Hulu will be the exclusive SVOD home for ABC’s drama, The Good Doctor.

The company has also struck a coup in a multi-year deal with DreamWorks Animation to be the exclusive streaming home to future DreamWorks Animation feature films. The deal snatches away content from competitor Netflix after 2018.

New DreamWorks content for Hulu will include How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, The Boss Baby 2 and Trolls 2, starting in 2019, as well as DreamWorks library films like Shrek, Shrek 2 and Shark Tale.

Hulu also revealed interesting numbers that prove the service is being watched by the majority of its subscribers in the living room. 78 percent of Hulu’s viewing takes place on connected TVs, it said.

As for customers subscribing to Hulu with Live TV, start looking for more commercials. The company has announced it will soon begin offering dynamically inserted ads into programming sometime later this quarter.

Hulu has been viewable on Apple TV since June of 2010 and the services app – which airs both Hulu and Hulu with Live TV – is available through the AppStore.