By Agence France-Presse
Hulu on Wednesday cut the price of its basic streaming television plan as it battled with rivals such as Netflix and Amazon, which are spending big on original content.
Monthly subscriptions to Hulu's streaming television service that serves up ads along with shows and films will be $5.99 after a $2 price cut takes effect in late February, according to the company.
(AP Photo/Dan Goodman, File / MANILA BULLETIN)
An ad-free Hulu streaming plan will remain $11.99 monthly, while the price of a deluxe plan combining on-demand and live television will be bumped up to $44.99, an increase of $5.
Hulu is a joint venture of Walt Disney, Fox, NBCUniversal, and Warner Media.
"Hulu is giving TV fans what they want -- choice, flexibility, and control -- in what they watch, how they watch and what they pay for the TV plan that best suits their needs," the company said in a release.
Leading streaming television service Netflix last week boosted prices for US subscribers.
The California-based company, which has nearly half of its 130 million paid members in the US, raised the price of its most popular streaming plan with high-definition video by 18 percent to $12.99 per month.
Netflix will also boost prices of some other subscription plans and will apply those rates to Latin America and Caribbean countries where it bills customers in US dollars.
The three large US streaming television groups -- Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu -- have been investing heavily in new content as competition ramps up with new offerings from traditional media giants such as Disney and CBS, and a newly announced plan from Comcast-owned NBCUniversal.