No more Hulu Plus! Hulu drops the ‘Plus’ from paid tier in streamlining effort

By Chris Leo Palermino June 17, 2015

hulu paid tier drops plus in streamling effort header pic 1 — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Hulu’s paid tier will now be known simply as Hulu — instead of Hulu Plus — according to the streaming video service. The change in branding is an effort to streamline the service, and make it easier for users to upgrade to its paid tier. Otherwise, the Hulu service will remain the same, offering a free tier and a $8 per month subscription tier, both with ads.

“We’ve had a blast with our old friend Plus, but it’s time to move on,” wrote the company in an email to subscribers yesterday. “We just wanted to let you know that we are retiring the Hulu Plus name. From now on, we will just be known as Hulu. No ‘Plus.'”

Hulu hopes the ‘marketing change’ will help them compete better with Netflix, which only has a paid tier. The service currently has nearly 9 million paying users, far fewer than Netflix 57.4 million subscribers. But for TV buffs, Hulu still has some advantages over its competition: it offers many TV shows the day after they air, and has exclusive licenses to programming including Seinfeld and The Daily Show.

While the company initially announced the change last month in a presentation for advertisers, the rebranding will be a slower transition. Apps on the Google Play and iOS store still use the Hulu Plus brand as of publication time.

While the change in name comes with no other changes to the platform, it comes at a time when things are looking up for the service. Paid subscriptions are up 50 percent over last year, according to CEO Mike Hopkins, and video streams in the first three months of 2015 were already up 77 percent. “2015 is the year Hulu will break out,” said Hopkins at the April presentation.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Chris Leo Palermino

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Chris Leo Palermino is a music, tech, business, and culture journalist based between New York and Boston. He also contributes…

Entertainment

3 Hulu movies you need to stream this weekend (May 10-12)

Anne Hathaway as Rebecca looking intently off-camera in Eileen.

If you're looking for something to watch this weekend, then Hulu has you covered. Disney's other streaming service doesn't get all of the press that Disney+ does, but Hulu has a much better library of movies, especially for cinema lovers who want to watch more than just Star Wars or Marvel flicks.

This week's selections of the three Hulu movies you need to stream this weekend include an underrated Wes Anderson film, a non-Marvel superhero flick, and a 2023 psychological thriller that didn't get the attention it deserved during its initial release.
The Darjeeling Limited (2007)

Entertainment

3 action movies on Hulu you need to watch in May

Samuel L. Jackson and Bruce Willis in Die Hard With a Vengeance.

Summer is for action, and while The Fall Guy didn't exactly heat up the box office last weekend, Hulu's got plenty of excitement for action fans streaming at home. The ability to draw upon 20th Century Studios' library and borrow films from other studios means that Hulu is never without some top-tier action flicks.

Our picks for the three action movies that you need to watch in May include a modern sequel to an aging franchise, one of Dwayne Johnson's first movies, and the very best Die Hard movie that wasn't the original film.
Bad Boys for Life (2020)

Audio / Video

The 10 most popular streaming services, ranked by subscriber count

The Netflix home screen.

Let's start this with a caveat or two: If you're going to compare streaming services merely by the number of subscribers they have, it's not exactly a fair fight. Not all services are available in the same places. Nor does the number of subscribers really address the "worth" of a streaming service. Or whether it's easy to use, or if the apps are any good. Or, for that matter, if a given streaming service has what you want to watch, which really is the only measure necessary.

Still, it's interesting to keep up with how things are doing from a global perspective, especially when you have relatively young upstarts like Apple TV+ gaining so many accolades in an industry dominated by Netflix.