Does Hulu show as many ads as its reputation suggests?
Does Hulu show as many ads as its reputation suggests?
Disney’s general entertainment streamer has a great library, but what’s the ad experience like?
Hulu has a ton of great content to watch. The streamer comes with originals of its own, alongside a huge library of licensed titles, including next-day streams of primetime shows from ABC and Fox, titles from the FX cable network, and a lot more.
Unfortunately, Hulu also has the reputation of having one of the worst advertising experiences of any streaming service. I took a deep dive into the streamer to see what watching ads on Hulu is really like. You can read my thoughts below to see if ad-supported Hulu is the right choice for you.
Everything you need to know about the ad experience on Hulu
What’s the ad experience on original shows?
I picked “Only Murders in the Building” to test a 60-minute original show on Hulu, and the latest season of “Futurama” as my 30-minute test subject. During the shorter “Futurama” episodes, I measured that there were around five minutes of ads each, with ad breaks between 15 seconds (usually reserved for pre-roll ads) and 60 to 90 seconds for mid-playback commercial breaks. There were usually three ad breaks per episode, not including the one that plays before the show actually starts.
The only difference during “Only Murders” was that there were four ad breaks per episode instead of three. This resulted in a total commercial time of five to seven minutes per episode; otherwise, the breaks were equal in length to those I saw during the half-hour show.
What’s the ad experience on licensed shows?
Following the same methodology, I watched “Family Guy” as my 30-minute licensed show, and fellow Fox series “Doc” as my hourlong tester. The results were essentially the same as the experience on original shows; I saw around 5 minutes of ads per episode of “Family Guy,” and five to seven minutes’ worth on “Doc.” The ad breaks were all 60 to 90 seconds in length, and the only discernable difference was an extra commercial break in the longer episodes.
How many ads will you see in Hulu original movies?
This is the one segment where I felt I caught a little bit of a break. I tested both “Nutcrackers” and “Brats” here, and on both, I noted that while the pre-roll ad break was a little longer (around a minute), there were fewer commercial breaks during playback. These too were longer than TV ad breaks, with some as long as two full minutes in length. Even so, stretched over the course of an entire movie, I only saw around five or six minutes of ads per film.
How many ads will you see in licensed Hulu movies?
Both “Office Space” and “Donnie Darko” had more ads than the Hulu original movies I tested above. Instead of two or three ad breaks per movie, I saw three to four, which increased the total commercial time per film to as much as eight minutes. The breaks themselves were still longer than what I saw while watching Hulu TV shows.
Does Hulu play ads during kids shows?
Yes and no. When I flipped on a show intended for smaller kids like “Blippi,” I saw no ads of any kind. However, when I went for “Gravity Falls,” I saw the same number of commercials I did with other Hulu TV series. That suggests to me that Hulu thinks that some of these kids series get a high number of adult viewers, and places ads on those shows accordingly.
Does Hulu have pause ads?
Yes, I saw paused ads for every type of content I tried to turn on when watching Hulu.
Final thoughts
In a word? Yikes. The ad experience on Hulu may not be as bad as that on traditional TV, but it’s the closest I’ve come so far. I saw more ads than I had on any other streaming service I tested, and worse yet, the commercials got repetitive fast. I must have seen the same ad for Sam’s Club four or five times while running through the content for this article.
Ads on any streaming service are a bummer, but Hulu makes the ad experience truly ponderous. It costs an extra $9 per month to stream the service ad-free, but it’s definitely something I would consider if you’re not a fan of commercials, as streaming Hulu could become a nightmare for you fast otherwise.
Hulu
Hulu is a video streaming service that gives access to thousands of full seasons of exclusive series, hit movies, kids shows, and Hulu Originals like “Only Murders in the Building,” and “The Handmaid’s Tale.”