Just after Netflix announced that it will be raising its subscription price in 2019, Hulu fired back today with the news that it’s going to cut the price of its service from $8 per month down to $6.
Hulu's new price cut goes into effect on February 26 for new subscribers, while existing subscribers should see the change the next time they’re billed after that date, according to a news release on Hulu’s website. You can sign up for Hulu today on its website.
It’s worth noting, though, that the price cut only affects the basic tier of Hulu - i.e. the one that comes with advertisements throughout the shows. If you want the ad-free experience, that’ll still cost you $12 per month - and, worse, if you want the Live TV version of Hulu, that’s going to cost you even more next month with a new subscription price of $45 per month.
While that makes Hulu with Live TV a bit more expensive than the other options out there (both YouTube TV and DirecTV Now start at $40 per month), its base package price is substantially less expensive than Netflix which will soon set you back $9 a month once the price hike goes into effect.
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85,000 episodes (with ads) for $6 per month
The reason Netflix is raising costs, analysts speculate, is to help offset the cost of producing all the new original content like Roma, Stranger Things and the dozens of other new movies and TV shows the streaming service produces throughout the year.
While Hulu has a few original shows of its own - like the award-winning The Handmaid's Tale - most of the 85,000 episodes on the streaming service come from cable networks like AMC, Comedy Central, Discovery, FX and others.
In short, original content takes more money to produce and while you might miss some of those shows by switching to Hulu, you'll at least be saving some money. And there's loads to choose from, as you can see from our guide to the best shows on Hulu.
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