Hulu Now Offers Commercial-Free Option

Until today, Hulu's streaming content featured commercials—even if you were a paying subscriber. But as of today, the company announced, you can pay $12 a month for an ad-free version of the streaming service. The move is intended to help Hulu better compete with Netflix and Amazon Prime, which don't show commercials to subscribers, the New York Times reports. Hulu still offers an ad-supported subscription for $8 a month, and offers some content for free streaming.

"You can split people into two categories: ad avoiders and ad acceptors," says Hulu CEO Mike Hopkins, noting that the company paid attention to complaints on social media about its commercials. "There are clearly people who just are not going to buy Hulu because there are ads," and those are the people for whom this move is intended. For those of you keeping track, the cheapest Netflix subscription is $8 a month, and Amazon Prime costs $99 a year. (More Hulu stories.)