A lot of people are already signing up for Disney+ since it launched the other day. We don’t have the numbers yet, including those who signed up for the bundle which includes Hulu and ESPN+. What a lot of people have missed though is that it’s the basic tier of Hulu so that it includes ads. And there are apparently a lot of ads in this tier. The problem though is that once you’ve subscribed to the bundle, you’re stuck in that tier even if you want to upgrade. That’s something that Disney may have overlooked (or did they?) when creating this bundle.
Disney+ on its own is already pretty super (well, if you’re a Disney fan) at just $6.99. But if you get the bundle at $12.99, the pricing is still pretty competitive given that you have an additional 2 streaming platforms as well. But if you’re not that crazy about ads, the Hulu one can become a problem. The ad breaks are not just long but there are a lot of them in the middle of all the shows and the movies.
Apparently, it may be enough for people to consider upgrading their subscription to the Hulu (no ads) tier. However, you cannot do that when you’re subscribed to that Disney+ bundle. If you go to the Hulu site directly, then you’ll be redirected to Disney+ to manage your subscription and your only option is to actually cancel your subscription. Even worse, you can’t immediately cancel it then sign up separately for the stand-alone Disney+ app and a Hulu (no ads) tier because you have to wait until the subscription term on the bundle ends.
Well the other option would be to just create a new account on Hulu so you can subscribe to that other tier. That is of course, a bit more of a hassle but that seems to be the only choice really if you can’t stand all those ad breaks while watching your TV show or movie. There are probably reasons as to these hoops you have to jump through, but they can be annoying.
So before you sign up for that bundle, make sure you’re ready to stick it out, at least until the end of your month. And if you’re going to watch some stuff on Hulu, you now know what you’re getting yourself into.
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