‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Has Helped Increase Hulu Subscriptions By 98% Since March

Hulu’s hit Handmaid’s Tale series helped catapult the streaming service to Emmy’s history as the first digital platform to take home the coveted award for ‘Best Drama’.

And that’s not all: it has also helped Hulu drum up new subscribers in spades, according to The Hollywood Reporter, which notes that average daily sign-ups are up 98% over March. (The Handmaid’s Tale premiered on April 26). Hulu also told the Reporter that, since March, it has broken its daily sign-up record a total of seven times, and that the average number of minutes viewed per week has grown by 5%.

“Handmaid’s Tale was fabulous in and of itself, but what it also did was open up a conversation about everything else that is on Hulu,” Ben Smith, the company’s head of experience, told the outlet. To this end, Smith also attributes the increase in subscribers to the launch of Hulu’s live TV service

(which includes a traditional subscription as part of its $40 monthly fee), the addition of HBO as an add-on option, a partnership with Spotify to sell a discounted bundle service for students, a platform redesign, and the addition of 7,500 new television episodes from the likes of HGTV, A&E, and Fox leading into the fall TV season.

Hulu also said it plans to spend $2.5 billion on content through 2017 — including on Sean Penn’s television debut The First, a prestige drama from House Of Cards creator Beau Willimon. Hulu will also be the exclusive streaming home for the reboot of the cult-favorite NBC comedy Will & Grace.

Hulu stopped reporting subscriber numbers, but the service, which is only available in the U.S., says it has 47 million unique viewers.