If you’re a Hulu subscriber, your monthly streaming bill is about to get a little more expensive. The Hollywood Reporter shared that the streaming service has announced that starting Oct. 8 the monthly price for its ad-supported and ad-free plans will increase $1, taking the ad-supported plan from $5.99 to $6.99 and the ad-free plan from $11.99 to $12.99.
This news impacts both existing and new subscribers to Hulu. However, if you subscribe to the Disney streaming bundle that includes Hulu, Disney Plus and ESPN Plus, that price is staying at a monthly fee of $13.99, at least for the time being.
Hulu is one of the oldest streaming services and offers a library with thousands of classic TV shows and movies available to stream, as well as Hulu originals. Separately, there is also Hulu With Live TV, a live TV and SVOD service that is available for $64.99 per month (this plan is not increasing in price at this time, having just done so in December 2020).
In total, Hulu has 42.8 million subscribers currently, with 39.1 million of those signed up just for the streaming service (no live TV).
All of this comes on the heels of the announcement that Hulu would be the new home for content previously shown on Hotstar U.S., as reported by Deadline. Hotstar was primarily a streaming service offering Bollywood and South Asian films and shows. Now, these titles will be rotated on and off Hulu in regular intervals.
Disney, which owns Hulu, has raised the price of all of its streaming services within the last year. In March, Disney Plus subscriptions were lifted to $7.99 per month, then in August it raised ESPN Plus’ monthly fee to $6.99.
In the grand scheme of things, Hulu’s SVOD plans are right about in the middle. Paramount Plus and Peacock plans go for $4.99/$9.99 for ad-supported/ad-free plans; while Netflix and HBO Max are on the higher end with $13.99 and $9.99/$14.99 per month.
