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Hulu crosses 20 million subscribers

Bigger rival Netflix has 57 million in the US, the only country in which Hulu operates, and 125 million subscribers globally.

Joan E. Solsman Former Senior Reporter
Joan E. Solsman was CNET's senior media reporter, covering the intersection of entertainment and technology. She's reported from locations spanning from Disneyland to Serbian refugee camps, and she previously wrote for Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal. She bikes to get almost everywhere and has been doored only once.
Expertise Streaming video, film, television and music; virtual, augmented and mixed reality; deep fakes and synthetic media; content moderation and misinformation online Credentials
  • Three Folio Eddie award wins: 2018 science & technology writing (Cartoon bunnies are hacking your brain), 2021 analysis (Deepfakes' election threat isn't what you'd think) and 2022 culture article (Apple's CODA Takes You Into an Inner World of Sign)
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Joan E. Solsman
2 min read
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Hulu has been adding subscribers but remains much smaller than rival Netflix.  

 Sarah Tew/CNET

Hulu has more than 20 million subscribers, adding 3 million since the end of last year. 

By comparison, Netflix , the biggest streaming-video service in the world by subscribers, said it has 57 million members in the US, where Hulu operates, and 125 million subscribers globally at the end of March. Last month, Amazon revealed it has more than 100 million people subscribed to Prime, its membership program best known for free two-day shipping but also includes access to Prime Video, its video service rivaling Netflix and Hulu. (But all Prime members aren't necessarily using Prime Video.)

At a Wednesday presentation to advertisers in New York known as a Newfront, Hulu also said 78 percent of its viewing is on a TV connected to the internet. It said it has increased time spent on Hulu by more than 60 percent. 

To marketers in the room, the company touted that it will begin letting advertisers dynamically insert commercials within the programming of its live-TV service by middle of the year. That means the ads you see while watching a stream of live television can have different advertising for you versus another viewer. The capability will be introduced on a few specific cable networks first and will roll out more widely to live channels in the coming months, Hulu said. 

Also at the presentation, Hulu announced that it was renewing its hit series The Handmaid's Tale for a third season as it greenlit several other new programs and said it would be introducing the ability to download content for offline viewing. 

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