I bet that the original licensing deals had terms based on "share of ad revenue". They had to renegotiate all their contracts to offer the ad-free tier, and not all the content providers played ball.
Only if you are on the $7.99 plan. To me, if you're willing to pay $7.99 for Hulu, why wouldn't you pay $4 more to avoid ads (unless you really like ads, I guess)?
> To me, if you're willing to pay $7.99 for Hulu, why wouldn't you pay $4 more to avoid ads (unless you really like ads, I guess)?
One can not like ads, but have the expected total disutility experienced in Hulu-based ads on the $7.99 plan that would be avoided on the $11.99 be worth less than $4/month, in which case the rational choice would be to not upgrade to the ad-free tier.