Hulu Kills Off Free Streaming Service, Moves to Subscription-Only Model

SANTA MONICA, CA — In the nine years since its launch, Hulu users have been able to stream their TV shows free of charge, but that is about to change. The Santa Monica-based company announced Monday it is ending its ad-supported streaming service.

Hulu will now only offer two subscription services, $7.99 for the one with ads and $11.99 for the one without.

"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,” Ben Smith, Hulu senior VP and head of experience, said in a statement to 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.”

The free service will be phased out in the next few weeks, but at the same time, Hulu will partner with Yahoo to launch a new ad-supported service called Yahoo View, where viewers can watch the five most recent episodes of shows from ABC, NBC and Fox eight days after their initial air date.

For more on this story, visit Variety.