Getting your weekly fix of new TV shows from Hulu is about to get more expensive, as the streaming video service plans to phase out its free tier that was supported with ad revenue.
After letting users watch thousands of episodes for free since it launched nine years ago, Hulu has partnered with Yahoo to offer up its content for a new service called Yahoo View, an ad-supported service that will give viewers the ability to watch the five most recent episodes of shows from ABC, NBC and Fox.
Hulu’s free service will be phased out over the next few weeks, reports Variety. Yahoo is now Hulu’s “preferred partner” for free episodes, even though the company also distributes free content through Comcast’s Xfinity service.
“For the past couple years, we’ve been focused on building a subscription service that provides the deepest, most personalized content experience possible to our viewers,” said Ben Smith, Hulu’s senior VP and head of experience, in a statement. “As we have continued to enhance that offering with new originals, exclusive acquisitions and movies, the free service became very limited and no longer aligned with the Hulu experience or content strategy.”
The new Yahoo View platform will offer day-after clips of shows as well as some full seasons of anime and Korean dramas. Hulu plans to launch a live-TV streaming service next year. Despite ditching its ad-supported free service, Hulu will still serve up ads to monthly subscribers who pay $7.99, while the $11.99 per month tier comes ad-free.
