Hulu has announced that it has reached the mark of over 20 million subscribers in the United States, going up from 17 million subscribers reported in January of this year. To celebrate this leap of 3 million customers within four months, Hulu has revealed their upcoming plans for the platform. According to the company, the “total engagement” is up by 60 percent. The 20 million customer base is spread across Hulu’s various service tiers which have its core ad-supported service, Hulu with No Commercial and Hulu with Live TV. As of now, the company is still trailing behind Netflix, which has a subscriber count of 55 million in the US as reported in Q1 2018 earning.
“In the race for premium entertainment, Hulu has the creativity and the resources to go head-to-head with anyone and win,” CEO Randy Freer told the crowd.
For starters, Hulu has widened its schedule of original series and has confirmed the arrival of Mindy Kaling’s Four Weddings and a Funeral, Ramy Youssef’s Ramy, plus Catch-22 from George Clooney and The First, starring Sean Penn. The award-winning series, The Handmaid’s Tale, is also being renewed for a third season. Additionally, for the first time, Hulu will let some of its content to be saved and played offline, which means that subscribers will be able to store content on their devices to watch when they are without a Wi-Fi or mobile data connection; however, this feature will be supported by advertising.
A majority of Hulu viewership is happening in the living room, meaning 78 percent of streaming takes place on connected TV’s. A combination subscription with Spotify is sure to help boost Hulu’s viewership. However, most people are not streaming on their smartphones. Hulu has also partnered with Blumhouse Television for a recurring horror event series called “Into The Dark.” This series will be featured on the first Friday of every month which would be a super-sized episode. The episode will be inspired by that month’s major holiday and will feature a broad selection of filmmakers and actors.
To support these new efforts, the company will be launching a couple of new advertising features. Hulu will also start showing dynamically- inserted ads within Hulu Live TV. These features are supposed to be launched during Hulu’s 2018-2019 upfront season.
