Hulu has always had a weird business model. You can watch most of its content for free, pay extra to get the latest stuff, and pay even more to watch without ads. Now the free tier is going away. For the most part.


Over the next few days, Hulu will start letting free users know that the no-cost tier is expiring. They’ll be offered a free trial of a paid subscription if they want to try it out. Confusingly, Hulu will continue to offer its collection of free content through licensing deals with distribution partners like Comcast, plus a new TV hub on Yahoo called Yahoo View. However, if you want Hulu directly, you’ll have to start paying for it.

Otherwise, Hulu’s plans sound like they’re staying the same. You can pay $8 a month for access to Hulu’s full library, or $12 a month for the same library without ads (mostly.) Frankly, this sucks for those of us who don’t mind a few ads in exchange for free shows. Without that tier and a $12 price premium to get an ad-free experience, Hulu looks a lot more pricey. On the other hand, Hulu’s been scooping up a lot of content that you used to be able to get on Netflix, so maybe it will be worth it for some people.


Hulu to End Free TV Service | The Hollywood Reporter