Hulu Upping Monthly Price By $1

Only Murders in The Building
(Image credit: Hulu)

Your weekly Only Murders in the Building fix just got a little more expensive. 

Hulu has begun informing customers this week that starting on Oct. 8, the monthly price of its base subscription video-on-demand streaming service will shoot up from $5.99 to $6.99. 

And the monthly price for the SVOD service without ads will go up from $11.99 to $12.99. (Hat tip to Variety for first reporting on Hulu's notifications.)

The price increase doesn't effect Hulu's virtual pay TV bundle, which packages a virtual MVPD with its SVOD smorgasbord. That's staying at $64.99 for a version with VOD ads and $70.99 for the sans-commercials iteration. 

Likewise, Disney--which now owns more than two-thirds of Hulu and acts as controlling shareholder--has not changed the price of bundles that package Hulu along with Disney Plus and ESPN Plus. 

Disney reported in August that Hulu has nearly 43 million subscribers. And the media conglomerate now prefers that new customers sign up for the service in the bundle. 

Disney CEO Bob Chapek told investors that "a good chunk of our marketing now is going toward a bundle. While we enjoy extremely low churn rates on our individual services, the churn rates on the bundle are even lower--surprisingly low even for us."

Hulu, in fact, reached profitability in Disney's fiscal third quarter, which ended in early July. 

The price increase also comes amid the success of Hulu's latest original series, Only Murders in the Building, starring Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez. 

Hulu said it's the platform's most watched original comedy series ever. 

Daniel Frankel

Daniel Frankel is the managing editor of Next TV, an internet publishing vertical focused on the business of video streaming. A Los Angeles-based writer and editor who has covered the media and technology industries for more than two decades, Daniel has worked on staff for publications including E! Online, Electronic Media, Mediaweek, Variety, paidContent and GigaOm. You can start living a healthier life with greater wealth and prosperity by following Daniel on Twitter today!