Following Netflix Price Change, Hulu Drops Cost For Ad-Supported Plan

The video streaming service Hulu has announced plans to drop the price for its most popular subscription tier. Starting next month the ad-supported basic plan will drop to $6, down from $8. Its other pricing tiers will remain as they currently are.

The Hulu site already lists the new price, so it'll already be effective for new subscribers. Existing subscribers will see the new price take effect as of February 26. The $6 tier is ad-supported but includes all of Hulu's on-demand programming from participating channel providers, as well as Hulu's slate of original content. A separate $12 tier removes the ads, while a significantly higher $45 tier includes live TV and is aimed at competing with cable subscriptions.

This comes just days after Netflix announced that its own plans would be rising in price. The $8 plan, which was comparable to Hulu's ad-supported plan, will be raised to $9. Netflix's own most popular tier, which includes higher-quality streaming and device compatibility, rose from $11 to $13, while its 4K Ultra-HD plan went from $14 to $16. Netflix was reportedly planning to use the new prices to reinvest in its original programming.

Hulu's decision may have had nothing to do with Netflix's, of course, but it's a clear sign of different approaches to increasingly fierce competition among streaming services. Each service is balancing the development of original programming with its pricing structures to find an ideal match. Meanwhile both services are set to get more competition soon, with the launch of Disney+.