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.
