I assume they mean the live TV offerings, and technically the Hulu splash at the start of every episode is marked as an ad.
But it’s still scummy.
They’ve been showing ads on content from certain sources on supposedly “ad-free” tiers for years.
The Hulu logo preroll/interstitial isnt an ad but it uses the same system. I imagine they only mean ads in live TV offerings.
They’re modifying a legal document, one of the most detail-focused creations *ever. If they only wanted it to apply to live TV programs, they absolutely could have. When people (or corporations) show you who they are, believe them.
edit: autocorrect
This is the TL;DR of what was updated. This is not the actual ToS.
Not defending, just pointing that out.
It’s… an excerpt, provided by Hulu from the full document, saying what they are allowing themselves to do with our money. It doesn’t have to be the entire EULA, word-for-word…
deleted by creator
Ok. But the first one i see and im canceling
Hulu was my Netflix alternative. If they start showing me ads I’m done with them too. Hopefully this was added for live events, sports, etc, but I don’t know if they deserve the benefit of the doubt.
🏴☠️
Hasn’t Hulu had ads on their paid tiers for a long time now? I remember that being a big deal way back, so I never bothered with a subscription.
Yes! Hulu originally was 100% free because it had ads. The it became a monthly sub but never removed the ads. Then it split into what it is today with an ad option and an ad free option.
If the no ads and ads free version contains adds then pirating is also not immoral anymore.
Call it what it is - copyright infringement. Piracy is the act of robbery on the high seas, but we’ve allowed media companies to take a shit in our vocabularies so we can’t call things by their proper names.
Yeah, but pirates are cool.
Arrr matey, t’was never immoral! Subscriptions only be for landlubbers!
Prepare to make sail! Ahoy!
I don’t consider it immoral regardless tbh
What words mean?
Writing on the phone … sometimes I should proof read it. What i wanted to write was something like
If the “no ads” and “ads free” version contains ads, then pirating the TV shows/movies is not immoral either.
I think they are pointing out that saying “no ads” and "ad-free about stuff that has ads is not using the words correctly. Could be wrong.
Grog no like ad. Grog want buy thing? Grog make up own mind. Grog not want ad tell grog what buy, what like. Grog know what grog like.
Product placement is advertising, and as such saying “no ads” while not blurring out product placement would be misselling the service
Sometimes it’s important to the plot to let the viewer know about the cool refreshing taste of Pißwasser German lager.
There’s several shows where it was important to production that they had those as they would have been cancelled without it. Community and Chuck were both basically saved by Subway.
They’ll be forgiven when we finally get the goddamn community movie and they make their bread not shit.
The movie is in production right now. Allison Brie posted about rewatching the series to prepare
That’s why I added the bread bit so I wouldn’t actually have to forgive subway.
Or Cervesa Cristal
“No ads” and “ad-free” apparently mean whatever they want it to! Man, I’m so tired of these giant, greedy corporations and modern enshittification…
If people would just drop their service en masse they would stop doing this shit. Everyone acts like they can be without a streaming service for a month or two so they’ll just complain as they continue to hand them money.
The reality is there aren’t enough people that care about ads to do that.
You either grew up with TV commercials or you grew up with ads, the conditioning is already there. There is a narrow band of people who don’t watch much or any TV and got on the internet for most content that remember when ads weren’t a thing. They have done studies and reviewed user data to determine how much ads they can play.
They might push users to leave by tickling the ad tolerance while increasing subscription fees, but that is unlikely to happen as the frog is already boiled.
I grew up with ads but I still don’t tolerate them, I’m practically allergic to ads.
Even back then I would just switch the Chanel when ads would start and then so many times just forget what I was watching and watch something else. And even as a kid I already would preference shows running on the public television in Germany because they didn’t have ads, they were played in a different way.
People who grew up with ads were okay with it because the shows and movies were free.
In the antenna days, sure, but cable and satellite sure weren’t free.
I’m from Australia so maybe things were different there, but my parents had cable in the 1990s and 2000s and I don’t remember there being ads back then other than promotions for different shows on the same channel. I haven’t used cable since maybe 2006 so it’s definitely possible it’s changed since then.
I know the US cable channels have a lot of ads these days, but I moved to the USA in 2013 and don’t have experience of how it was like before then.
The antenna days are still here. I’ve got a HDHomeRun and use it with TiviMate and Plex. It’s great for local news/shows and gameshows. I find new restaurants through local shows that review restaurants for example.
There were ads on cable channels as far back as I remember. We got cable in '85 or '86. HBO didn’t have ads during the program, but every other channel sure did.
HBO had ads for the other content on HBO (movie trailers, show ads) which also served as filler so the next show or movie could start on the hour or half hour. Definitely a different kind of ad, and it didn’t interrupt what you were watching.
Still ads, but the least intrusive kind.
during the program
Hence the qualifier.
I cancelled everything but paramount recently. Just cant quit star trek. Until I fix my DNS server at least
Yarrr, matey!
Eh, they just don’t want my money. I had a Netflix account back in the day. Ad-free and most everything was there. They’ve all fallen so far. Storage is pretty damn cheap these days, and torrents are a-plenty.
I’ve got a jellyfin server but I fucked my routing and haven’t fixed it.
Have you tried ejecting your DNS server’s warp core?
Have you tried FIRE PHOTON TORPEDOS ?
(Miss you GravitySync)
I’m interested to know if Hulu is under pressure from content owners here. The way this is worded makes it sound like ads are a negotiated part of some of their content licensing deals that they cannot avoid. I’m just curious if that’s in part because of the content owners. Maybe those owners don’t want to give content for a flat fee and instead want a % cut of the business, or something?
In other areas, yeah, probably.
But with music, movies, and TV, they’ll just blame piracy, crank up the DRM and bullshit on their own platforms, pat themselves on the back, and raise prices.
crank up the DRM
Which is why so many people pirate. Non-conforming browser, OS, TV, some other missing magic? Too bad. Paid for quality 4K? Here’s some low bitrate 720p.
I just assumed this disclaimer was for live sports, which include ads whether you want them to or not. It’s not like you can just leave out the commercial breaks in a live broadcast.
Show us the challenge review, show us the mascot relay race, show us the kiss cam.
yes, you can, and I would expect an “ad-free” service to do so, at minimum replace it with a “commercial break” sign and preferably adding extra commentary.
I’d say “sounds like a lawsuit”. After all, you can’t advertise something as no ads, and then show ads.
But then I remember who is in charge for the next four years and realize they’ll just get away with it.
Sir this is 2025 america lol
Gestures broadly
Our Deep Depression
Another one that shouldn’t be allowed but is are the unlimited* plans where the * indicates that it’s not really unlimited.
Anything where the clear statement with such a marker indicating it is not true should be illegal. ‘Up to’ claims should also be illegal unless they are true for 99%+ of users/customers.
They’ve literally been doing this for over a decade, at least. There were always some shows on Hulu that the “ad-free” plan didn’t include as ad-free, though they usually only showed ads at the beginning and the end of the show.
They get away with it with that damned asterisk. So long as you put an asterisk, you could say this comment does not contain English words*
* comment may contain some or all English and / or any other language words
According to a US judge last year, “boneless chicken wings” does not mean the chicken wings don’t have bones in them.
Look being real they would get away with it no matter which decrepit old man was in office or what their politics are. America is a corporatocracy wearing the skin of democracy. When the IRS audited Microsoft for tax evasion, the IRS got sued and defunded through lobbying to the point of being forced to back off. Fucking Microsoft took down the IRS. The world has changed and our old institutions of power are waning.
Welp, just canceled that subscription. They can fuck right off.
Ads free but with ads ! So words included in a contract don’t carry the same meaning as in the dictionary ?
Free ads
‘Inflammable’ means flammable? What a country!
This what we would call false advertising in my country.
You can’t write: “NO ADS!*”
“*actually, maybe some ads, as a treat”
That’s just completely negating the headline claim
Jesus fucking christ.
