One day after Amazon added offline viewing to its Instant Video service, Hulu has fired back with a big announcement of its own.
Hulu is launching a commercial-free version of its service today, letting you avoid ads entirely for $11.99 per month. That’s $4 more than the regular paid Hulu service, which includes “limited commercials” for $7.99 per month.
It's worth noting that the commercial-free version of Hulu isn't totally commercial-free, as a "small number of shows" will still include ads. Some of these shows are Grey's Anatomy, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., New Girl, and How To Get Away With Murder. Hulu says that these shows will have a short commercial at the beginning and end of each episode, but that there won't be any interriptions during the show.
Hulu has caught some flak in the past for showing commercials in its paid service. Hulu has responded to those complaints by saying that it has less advertising than traditional TV, but apparently that wasn’t enough to quiet the demand for commercial-free Hulu. Now that service is here, but you’ll have to pay extra for it. While I’m not sure that I’m willing to pay an extra $4 per month to avoid commercials on Hulu, it’s nice to see Hulu offering that option.
