Hulu is eliminating its free, ad-supported streaming service • Hacker News Board

Re: Hulu is eliminating its free, ad-supported streaming service

#21

Post by continuations » Mon, Aug 08, 2016, 9:15 PM UTC

erdevs wrote: post #16

Between Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, HBO Go, Showtime, etc on-demand services... what is left keeping people from cutting the cable TV cord? Just awareness and inertia? (Which are powerful, witness AOL dial-up ISP for a decade+.) Or are there other things keeping people tethered still? Sports? Reality TV series which don't all make it onto these on-demand services? Think this a smart move on Hulu's part. And depending on t…

Sports is the big thing.

Also cutting cable cord doesn't really save you that much. In most cases you still need to buy internet access from your cable company which is hardly cheap.

If cable cutting becomes more widespread I expect cable companies to offer "discounted" cable channels with their Internet:

It's either $100/mo for 10mbps Internet + HBO or $99 for 10mbps Internet alone. HBO has been discounted to $1/month. What a great deal!

Re: Hulu is eliminating its free, ad-supported streaming service

#22

Post by ccvannorman » Mon, Aug 08, 2016, 9:16 PM UTC

Aelinsaar wrote: post #18

jpmattia wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Cool, now if they could not show ads for their paid service, that'd be great. They offer it, but just like cable TV before it, the ad-free tier will go away as soon as somebody applies pressure on the bottom line.

If they do, they'll lose a ton of their customers.

They do and its exactly why i left them

Re: Hulu is eliminating its free, ad-supported streaming service

#23

Post by hsod » Mon, Aug 08, 2016, 9:18 PM UTC

hackerboos wrote: post #14

mark_l_watson wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We pay $12/month so Hulu diesn't show us ads. Really worth the extra money.

There are still ads on some shows even if you pay $12.

In case anyone was wondering, from https://help.hulu.com/articles/52427902#list

"In response to feedback from our viewers, we started offering a commercial free experience on Hulu. For a small number of shows, however, we have not obtained the rights to stream commercial free and they are not included in our No Commercials plan. You can still easily access these shows with a short commercial before and after each episode with no interruptions during the episode. Specific shows that still have commercials accessible through the No Commercials plan will be noted throughout the signup, switching and playback experience. While the list of shows may change, they are currently: Grey’s Anatomy, Once Upon a Time, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Scandal, Grimm, New Girl, and How To Get Away With Murder."

It's seven shows, and even on those the ads are only at the beginning and end they don't interrupt the show. I say we cut them some slack.

Re: Hulu is eliminating its free, ad-supported streaming service

#24

Post by cableshaft » Mon, Aug 08, 2016, 9:19 PM UTC

chjohasbrouck wrote: post #7

A couple years ago I was watching Hulu and noticed the ads always felt like they took much longer to play than they should. I got out my iPhone and timed the seconds as they counted down during ad time on Hulu. Each second of ad time on Hulu took 1.34 seconds of actual time to pass. They were telling you for example, that there were 2 minutes of ads about to play, but the 120 second countdown would actually take 160…

Hah! I always thought their second counter counted down kind of slow. Glad to have it confirmed. For several reasons I dislike Hulu and I haven't used their service for a few years now.

Re: Hulu is eliminating its free, ad-supported streaming service

#25

Post by relaytheurgency » Mon, Aug 08, 2016, 9:19 PM UTC

erdevs wrote: post #16

Between Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, HBO Go, Showtime, etc on-demand services... what is left keeping people from cutting the cable TV cord? Just awareness and inertia? (Which are powerful, witness AOL dial-up ISP for a decade+.) Or are there other things keeping people tethered still? Sports? Reality TV series which don't all make it onto these on-demand services? Think this a smart move on Hulu's part. And depending on t…

You can get sports covered if you sign up for Playstation Vue. I have been off cable for several years, but had always missed ESPN/FS. Playstaiton Vue has fixed that for me.

Re: Hulu is eliminating its free, ad-supported streaming service

#26

Post by sparky_z » Mon, Aug 08, 2016, 9:20 PM UTC

hackerboos wrote: post #14

mark_l_watson wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We pay $12/month so Hulu diesn't show us ads. Really worth the extra money.

There are still ads on some shows even if you pay $12.

According to the news coverage I've read, those shows don't have "commercial breaks", they just have a single commercial at the beginning and end. Honestly, who cares? Just hit mute and sit quietly for 30 seconds.

I can't verify this for myself, because, although I'm a top-tier subscriber, I've never actually run across a Hulu commercial in the wild. Whichever shows those are, I guess I don't watch them.

Re: Hulu is eliminating its free, ad-supported streaming service

#27

Post by wonks » Mon, Aug 08, 2016, 9:21 PM UTC

hsod wrote: post #23

hackerboos wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are still ads on some shows even if you pay $12.

In case anyone was wondering, from https://help.hulu.com/articles/52427902#list "In response to feedback from our viewers, we started offering a commercial free experience on Hulu. For a small number of shows, however, we have not obtained the rights to stream commercial free and they are not included in our No Commercials plan. You can still easily access these shows with a short commercial before and after each epi…

cringes Well, I admit there are only a few things they don't have the full rights to, and they're shows I don't watch, but I still find this grating. They said "ad-free" and I pay for that. Not "almost ad-free".

Re: Hulu is eliminating its free, ad-supported streaming service

#28

Post by CaptSpify » Mon, Aug 08, 2016, 9:26 PM UTC

chjohasbrouck wrote: post #7

A couple years ago I was watching Hulu and noticed the ads always felt like they took much longer to play than they should. I got out my iPhone and timed the seconds as they counted down during ad time on Hulu. Each second of ad time on Hulu took 1.34 seconds of actual time to pass. They were telling you for example, that there were 2 minutes of ads about to play, but the 120 second countdown would actually take 160…

Youtube uses some magical time calculation as well. When I watch on my roku it says "you can skip this ad in 5 sec", it usually takes ~7-10 for it to pop-up.

Re: Hulu is eliminating its free, ad-supported streaming service

#29

Post by SwellJoe » Mon, Aug 08, 2016, 9:30 PM UTC

Hulu has always seemed like its primary goal is to serve the incumbent television providers, and not their viewers. I don't know if it's still this way, but when the paid version was first introduced, I tried it for a while, but they often only had the most recent season of a show. What am I supposed to do with that? Start watching a show at season 5?

Netflix gets it: I want to either watch the whole show from the beginning (not necessarily in a binge, but sometimes), or watch the first episode and stop. There is never a time where I think "Oh, let's watch episode 9 from season 3 from this show I've never watched before".

I have Netflix and Amazon Prime; is there a reason to add Hulu to the mix, at this point? Are there shows or movies on Hulu that I'm not getting from Netflix or Prime? I am becoming more and more disappointed in the selection at Netflix, even while their exclusive content has gotten better their movie selection has begun to suck. I'd really like it if there were a good movie service, like Netflix once was. Hulu obviously isn't that, of course.

Re: Hulu is eliminating its free, ad-supported streaming service

#30

Post by teej » Mon, Aug 08, 2016, 9:33 PM UTC

SwellJoe wrote: post #29

Hulu has always seemed like its primary goal is to serve the incumbent television providers, and not their viewers. I don't know if it's still this way, but when the paid version was first introduced, I tried it for a while, but they often only had the most recent season of a show. What am I supposed to do with that? Start watching a show at season 5? Netflix gets it: I want to either watch the whole show from the be…

> Hulu has always seemed like its primary goal is to serve the incumbent television providers, and not their viewers

Err, maybe because Hulu is literally owned by the incumbent television providers?

"... It is a subsidiary of Hulu, LLC, a joint venture of The Walt Disney Company,[8] 21st Century Fox, Comcast and as of 2016, Time Warner through their Disney-ABC Television Group, Fox Broadcasting Company, NBCUniversal Television Group and Turner divisions" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hulu