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Comment by rjtobin | Hacker News Reader

I think there’s a chance it will be different: at least now there is the potential to offer customers an ad-free package for an extra cost. Some services like Hulu already do this (offering cheaper plan with ads and a slightly pricier plan with no ads). I think with cable this would have been difficult or impossible to achieve.

One nice thing about this is it makes plain how much the networks make from showing ads to your household. I happily pay a little extra to “outbid” the ad networks.

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Not true. HULU still shows ads, even with "No Ads" version. From their website:

Hulu (No Ads)

Get First Month Free

then $11.99/month

A few excluded shows play with ads.

[from here https://signup.hulu.com/plans]

That last line kills me.

It's like H2G2, you can't have Tea and No Tea unless you remove your common sense particle.

I mean, you're not wrong, but it's only for three shows, and there are no ads during the shows, only before and after. It was 7 when it first launched, so it doesn't seem like any other shows or new content will ever have ads. But hey, if you watch Agents of Shield, Grey's Anatomy, or How to Get Away with Murder, that surely does suck.

Huh. Thanks for figuring out what shows have ads!

Yeah, I guess that isn't as bad as it seems if there are just a few. I didn't bother to look up what "excluded" meant.

I mean, it said that in the "Learn More..." Link, so I was just going by that :)

How is this not a false advertising lawsuit in the making? I mean, maybe the effect will be to make it "Hulu Silver", but that's better than blatantly claiming "No Ads" on an ad-containing product.

edit: Incredibly, there seem to be multiple reasons why you can see ads when on the "No Ads" plan; and they have an entire page dedicated to these reasons: https://help.hulu.com/s/article/ads-no-commercials?language=...

There is Hulu with no ads where there are three shows with ads.

Then there is Hulu Live TV which is like traditional cable. That gives you shows live and on demand that would usually come with a cable package. This is in addition to the regular Hulu offering.

>How is this not a false advertising lawsuit in the making?

Because it says "A few excluded shows play with ads." And its three shows out many hundreds.

This is why Hulu is a nonstarter for me. If I'm paying, no ads, period.

You won’t use Hulu because three shows have ads - Greys Anatomy, How to Get Away with Murder and Agents of Shield?

No, actually: because they started out as ad-only, then added paid subscriptions while still forcing their subscribers to watch ads, and that is when I decided it was not for me. Maybe they've been evolving in a more positive direction if there are only a few shows left with ads?

They've had an ad free* version for years. Six dollars extra and you don't get ads.

*Three shows still have ads since they signed a deal before they released an ad free tier, and the only alternative would removing those three shows from the ad free tier, which is lose-lose.

Pretty sure those are the shows they were legally obliged to show with ads when they launched the no-ads feature.

we actually split Hulu with a friend. we pay the difference between basic and no-ads. it's an auto payment from bank account to bank account every month. life on autopilot.

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