Hulu Offers “Ad-Free” Subscription Service…That Isn’t Completely Ad-Free
These words...do not mean what you think they mean.
Oh, Hulu. When will you get it right?
Hulu now offers the option for completely commercial-free viewing…if you’re willing to pay a little more. Their new, ad-free plan costs $11.99/month. If you don’t want that, you can suffer through “limited commercials” for the same price you’re paying now.
Except that those commercials really aren’t “limited” are they? I mean, compared to what? When I hear “limited commercials,” I’m thinking one at the top, and maybe one in the middle. Not 4-5 commercial breaks. For that, I might as well be watching broadcast television.
Except that “ad-free” isn’t even completely ad-free. According to Deadline Hollywood:
A few shows on the ad-free service — including New Girl, Scandal, How To Get Away With Murder, Grey’s Anatomy, and Marvel’s Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. — will have a 15-second pre-roll ad and a 30-second post roll. Hulu also offers a sampling of ad-supported shows for free to PCs and a subset of the mobile devices served by the paid services.
So…it’s ad-free…except for the ad at the beginning. And at the end. Do you not know what words mean, Hulu?
The bad news is that “ad-free” Hulu is now more expensive than Netflix. However, it still has the advantage of getting a lot of shows first and more currently than Netflix does. So, to me, it’s still worth having both services to compliment each other. However, I’m not springing four more dollars a month for their service until they figure out what the word “free” means.
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