Hulu subscribers are soon going to be able to watch their favorite shows offline. On Wednesday Hulu announced that the streaming service has plans to offer a new, “ad-supported downloadable content experience” sometime “during the 2018-19 upfront season.”
Subscribers will finally be able to watch programming without being tied to an internet connection, but Hulu doesn’t want to break up the relationship between you and your favorite advertisers. If you’re already paying $11.99 a month to watch The Handmaid’s Tale without commercials, it’s not clear if this offline mode also include ads. Presumably it won’t, but we’ve reached out to Hulu to clarify which subscription plans will see ads in offline viewing.
Offline viewing certainly isn’t a new feature to the world of streaming video. Netflix debuted this feature back in 2016 and so did Amazon back in 2015.
Hulu didn’t specify when, exactly, this feature will be arriving, but considering Hulu’s competition has offered it for years, hopefully it’ll offer it sooner than later.
Update 3:05 PM: Hulu says subscribers who pay to remove ads from the service will not see them in the shows they’ve downloaded for offline viewing.