Hulu has officially changed the name of its paid tier as part of a branding update meant to help streamline its service. The $8 per month subscription tier is now simply called Hulu, rather than Hulu Plus. The company will still offer a free tier under the same name. Hulu hopes the change will help it compete with streaming leader Netflix. “While the change in name comes with no other changes to the platform, it comes at a time when things are looking up for the service,” Digital Trends points out. “Paid subscriptions are up 50 percent over last year, according to CEO Mike Hopkins, and video streams in the first three months of 2015 were already up 77 percent.”