On October 8th of 2021, Hulu is increasing its prices. The increases aren't major by any means, but it's going to mean more money being charged to your card at the end of each month forever, or at least until they raise prices again. In this article, we'll explain what the Hulu price increase actually is as well as why it's happening.
Currently, Hulu's basic plan costs $5.99 a month or $11.99 a month without ads. Hulu also offers discounts on their basic month plan (the ad-supported version) in the form of a yearly option that costs $59.99 a year, while paying monthly for a year would cost $71.88.
On October 8th, Hulu is increasing its prices. Their basic plan with ads will cost $6.99 monthly and $69.99 yearly. Their ad-supported plan will rise to $12.99 a month as well. The cost of Hulu +Live TV as well as ad-free Hulu + Live TV will not be changing from their $64.99 and $70.99 price points.
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It's also important to remember Hulu's basic ad-supported plan isn't simply their ad-free plan with ads, there are certain shows you can't watch with Hulu with ads that you can only watch on ad-free Hulu. Though, there aren't a large number of shows by any means.
Why is Hulu increasing prices? Hulu's increasing prices for much the same reason Netflix increased their prices over and over as the years went by: As your platform gets bigger and deals on shows and movies expire, you'll get charged more and more to renew those deals.
This is why not only has Netflix's prices increased over the years but why in many cases its catalog has shrunk, leaving many shows that were once on Netflix to be shuttled off to streaming sites willing to pay more for them to be available exclusively on their service.
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The streaming landscape today is a lot like the cable landscape that gave birth to the rise of streaming: Shows are locked behind an increasingly overwhelming number of streaming services that all rose up in the wake of the explosion of Netflix and companies everywhere wanting a piece of the streaming pie.
It's not unlikely that over time most streaming services will increase their prices, as most of the time nowadays if you aren't willing to pay for a certain streaming service, you'll be locked out of watching the certain show you're after. Many are willing to pay for convenience, and if your favorite show is only separated from you by $10 a month, it doesn't seem like the biggest ask.
Though, these kinds of changes make season subscriptions a lot more viable, where you don't need to perpetually be subscribed to just a Netflix to fill all your streaming needs, and instead you can switch services every so often after you go through a number of shows on movies on each platform. Then when new stuff is added later on, you can repeat the process.
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Until companies start offering a solution to the streaming service subscription madness that we can inevitably pay for but pay less for, expect these price increases to keep slowly coming while more and more content gets gated behind each new streaming service as they pop up
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