Hulu Tops 25 Mln Subscribers

(RTTNews) - Hulu has breached the 25 million subscriber mark, as the streaming company added 8 million subscribers in 2018, which is a 48% subscriber increase year over year.

Hulu CEO Randy Freer recently told CNBC that he thinks it's "absolutely possible" for the company to catch up with streaming giant Netflix.

"We added more subscribers in the U.S. than Netflix," Freer said in an interview with CNBC's Julia Boorstin. "We expect to grow more this year than we did last year."

Netflix has a total of 58 million U.S. subscribers. It added 1.09 million domestic subscribers in the third quarter of 2018, 674,000 in the second quarter and 1.96 million in the first quarter.

"Consumers have spoken loudly about their desire for more choice and control in their TV experience. They are seeing the enormous benefits of streaming, they're deciding which content and brands are most important to them, and they're choosing Hulu," said Freer said in a statement.

The company said it grew its advertising revenue more than 45% to nearly $1.5 billion and also increased its advertiser base by 50%. The average time spent on Hulu per subscriber each month increased 20% in 2018.

Hulu is a joint venture with The Walt Disney Company, which holds 30% stake, 21st Century Fox, which holds 30% stake, Comcast ,which holds 30% stake and AT&T, which holds 10% stake. Disney's acquisition of Fox will give it a majority stake of 60% in Hulu when the deal closes.