Hulu is Shutting Down Their Free TV Service


By

on

in


Hulu_logoLove Hulu’s free streaming option? Well we have sad news for you… Hulu will begin notifying customers that the free Hulu will shut down over the next few days, and members who have been using the free service will get a free trail of Hulu’s paid 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,” says Ben Smith, Hulu senior vp and head of experience. “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.”

Most of Hulu’s free content has been fairly limited, with just a “rolling five,” or the five most recent episodes of a current show — content that typically becomes available eight days after it airs and is usually also available for free on broadcast networks’ websites. For example, recent episodes of shows like America’s Got Talent and South Park are currently available for free, while Hulu’s slate of originals and high-profile exclusives remain behind the paywall.

The timing of this closer so quickly after the Time Warner deal leaves some to wonder if Hulu’s new owners may have forced this change.

“We’re trying to get the best digital content in front of our users,” says Phil Lynch, Yahoo vp and head of media partnerships, adding that the strategy for View is very different than that of Screen and its focus on clips and other mostly short-form videos. “This is Hulu content. We are the eyeballs and the distribution platform.”

Some of the free Hulu content is moving over to Yahoo’s new service Yahoo Vue.

“Video is an important part of Yahoo’s strategy and we’re committed to delivering the best digital video content to our users. To date, we’ve streamed amazing experiences across sports, finance, and news,” said Phil Lynch, Vice President and Head of Media Partnerships. “This partnership with Hulu is a natural extension of that strategy, bringing the best of TV & entertainment content to our lifestyle vertical.”

No exact date was announced for when the free version of Hulu will shut down but many expect it to be with in the next few months to even weeks.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

Please follow us on Facebook and Twitter for more news, tips, and reviews.

Need cord cutting tech support? Join our new Cord Cutting Tech Support Facebook Group for help.

Disclaimer: To address the growing use of ad blockers we now use affiliate links to sites like http://Amazon.com, streaming services, and others. Affiliate links help sites like Cord Cutters News, stay open. Affiliate links cost you nothing but help me support my family. We do not allow paid reviews on this site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

* indicates required

Please select all the ways you would like to hear from :

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. For information about our privacy practices, please visit our website.

We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By clicking below to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp’s privacy practices here.