Hulu CEO Mike Hopkins chalked up the exceptions to rights held by studios on select series. “They have other commitments that they couldn’t free them up for a complete commercial-free offering,” he said, adding that the service will clearly delineate the exceptions to users before they stream those series.
Other series that will have pre-roll include four ABC series: “How to Get Away with Murder,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Once Upon a Time,” “Agents of SHIELD,” and an NBC series, “Grimm.”
Hulu is making the move in response to subscriber complaints voiced in various forms of consumer research about having to pay yet still watch ads. Earlier this month, a Parks Associates survey found that half of Hulu subscribers have canceled service over the past 12 months, compared to just 9% for Netflix over the same span.
The new subscription option brings Hulu in line with its commercial-free rivals Netflix, which remains several dollars cheaper than Hulu depending on which rate its own subscribers pay, and Amazon Prime, which charges $99 per year for access to its content library in addition to free two-day shipping.
From the article "Hulu Adds (Mostly) Ad-Free Subscription Service" by Andrew Wallenstein.
The standard is used in about 580 million homes worldwide if you include cordless phones. About 50 million units are in Europe, including gateways and VoIP boxes, according to Brad Russell, a market r...
Concerns about data security also have been shown to increase with ownership of more connected devices. Currently, U.S. broadband households own an average of 10.4 connected devices -- including enter...
The bottom line is that operators need to begin now, knowing that changes will take years to accomplish. Companies must begin with specific goals and objectives in mind, with appropriate expectations...
The Apple TV came in fourth, behind Amazon's Fire TV, Google's second-place Chromecast and Roku's pack-leading set-top devices, in Parks Associates' tally of streaming device sales in 2014. Amazon and...
