Hulu Ending its Free Streaming Service, Partnering With Yahoo

Hulu is axing its free streaming service as of this fall.

Variety is reporting that Hulu will only offer two subscription plans: $7.99 per month with ads, and $11.99 per month ad-free in place of its free ad-supported content.

“For the past couple years, we’ve been focused on building a subscription service that provides the deepest, most personalized content experience possible to our viewers,” Hulu senior vice-president Ben Smith told Variety. “As we have continued to enhance that offering with new originals, exclusive acquisitions, and movies, the free service became very limited and no longer aligned with the Hulu experience or content strategy.”

Hulu is also partnering with Yahoo to launch a new TV-watching site offering episodes of your favorite television shows that offer bonus content such as backstage clips, recaps and “the best of Tumblr fandom.” Dubbed Yahoo View, the partnership will bring thousands of TV shows, anime and movies including full episodes, films, and clips for free.

Yahoo vice-president of  lifestyles product Jess Lee described Yahoo View as a community TV-watching site.

“We’ve seen awesome things happen when you add community and content together (think of the passionate communities on Yahoo Sports, Polyvore and Tumblr to name a few) and are excited to be taking this first step towards creating a powerful community TV-watching experience,” Lee said. “Today’s launch is only scratching the surface of what’s possible, and we are looking forward to rolling out more content and community-related updates soon.”

The site —available in the U.S. today at view.yahoo.com — features a “beyond the episode” section that can block extras like spoilers about the video playing as well as offer picture-in-picture so viewers can watch videos while browsing to other content without leaving the screen.

Mobile web and mobile apps are to arrive in the near future.

Jennifer Cowan is the Managing Editor for SiteProNews.

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