What Hulu means by "circumstances may require" ads in ad-free tiers

Hulu sent out a confusing email to subscribers last night suggesting ad-free tiers may still get ads sometimes.

By Emma Keates | February 13, 2025 | 9:35am

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Yesterday, users who subscribe to one of Hulu‘s ad-free tiers—including some of our staff writers—received a confounding email from the streamer. “We are clarifying that, as we continue to increase the breadth and depth of the content we make available to you, circumstances may require that certain titles and types of content include ads, even in our ‘no ads’ or ‘ad free’ subscription tiers,” it read. So even Hulu’s ad-free tiers will have ads sometimes. Cool cool cool.

Well, we reached out to Hulu to clarify the bizarre choice of words, and the company did provide some clarity. The update only applies to sports and other live events that would have ad space built in anyway. So, it would seem, the issue is more of the standard “streaming is reinventing cable” variety than the “words are meaningless and we have no consumer protections anymore” category. That’s good! But Hulu might want to double-check its phrasing next time so it doesn’t seem like they’ve completely nuked the concept of one of the last little perks streaming users have left. For a second, it sounded a bit too much like the company’s consultant on this one graduated from one of Canada’s top business schools with really good grades.