T-Mobile announced yesterday that it is expanding its offerings of “free” video streaming services, adding the popular Hulu streaming platform to its Go5G Next plan. This marks another step in T-Mobile’s aggressive push to attract new subscribers by bundling in popular services.

However, the free Hulu access comes with some significant caveats. It is only available to T-Mobile customers on the Go5G Next plan, which starts at $100 per month for a single line. Additionally, it is an ad-supported version of Hulu, not the fuller ad-free plan. Go5G Next subscribers do receive some other perks like 50GB of hotspot data per month, but the overall cost of the plan is still substantial.

T-Mobile does offer free Hulu for some of its other plans as well, but only for its premium Magenta Max plan which has an even higher monthly fee. This pattern of tying free streaming access to only the highest tier and most expensive plans has been T-Mobile’s strategy for some time now with its “Netflix On Us” and “Apple TV+ On Us” offer.

Still, for those already paying for or considering the Go5G Next plan, free Hulu starting on January 24th is a nice bonus. It adds to the plan’s stacked lineup of free entertainment offerings including Netflix, Apple TV+, and MLB.TV subscriptions. T-Mobile says these streaming extras amount to over $400 annually.

But that math only works out if you were already looking to pay for all of those streaming services individually. If not, it is mostly a way for T-Mobile to squeeze more profit from subscribers who sign up for premium plans primarily for the bundled “free” services, which come with monthly plan fees far above the cost of an actual Hulu or Netflix subscription.

So while media coverage may tout this announcement as a straightforward win for consumers, it is a carefully calculated strategy by T-Mobile to drive subscriptions to its most expensive data plans. The real value may not be as clear-cut for savvy customers who read the fine print.