Hulu’s Live TV Service to Cost $39.99 per Month

Megalith

Megalith

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Forty bucks a month for content with ads that I can’t skip? Where do I sign up? To be fair, that cost would also include their original and on-demand content, but this still sounds pretty expensive, especially when you consider the fact that Hulu is musing an unlimited DVR option for an additional $20 a month. And on top of that, you would still need to pay an extra $4 to get rid of the commercials from their regular programming.

The pricing for Hulu’s live TV service, a competitor with cable television – as well as a host of other streaming TV services like Sling TV, PlayStation Vue, DirecTV NOW, and YouTube TV – will likely be $39.99 per month, with ads and access to Hulu’s on-demand library, according to sources with knowledge of Hulu’s plans. That’s in line with Hulu CEO Mike Hopkins’ previous statement that its new service would cost “under $40” per month. The live TV service will include access to Hulu’s on-demand content, Hulu Originals, live network broadcasts, and the broadcast networks’ on-demand content.
 
So just to compare against regular services..

$40 for the base service
+$20 for a DVR
+$4 to eliminate ads

So realistically $64/mo + for a heavily limited TV offering. Vs most decent TV packages start around $60/mo, include a whole home DVR and far more content. I mean neither offer is very appealing, but the only appeal they have is somewhat less ads.

I'll stick with High speed internet only and Netflix + Amazon prime. Far cheaper, nearly all the same content and more than enough left over to outright buy the entire season of anything I miss and still save money.
 
And we have another swing and a miss.

$40 a month.
Ok price, depending on what channels are included.

Unlimited DVR for an additional $20?
Way too much. Maybe $10, and a limited DRV should be included in the base service.

Unable to skip commercials?
No way. Service would be worth maybe $10/month with forced commercials.
 
hmmm.. i will have to give it a look. we have both hulu and sling, but sling is OMFG bad with their commercials. so if hulu can pull it off with similar content and less commercials, then i might be able to cancel sling
 
Nope. The limited programming on these things kills it for me. There are a few shows I watch, and it's far from worth $40 a month. Sling was fine at $20 a month. Very doable. It was just the content that killed it for me. PSVue was fine for the wife, but I still had some issues.

There are alternatives, including regular Hulu, that cost a lot less for the majority of the content I view.

For $40 a month plus $20 for DVR, and I'm back into the price range of satellite TV. Costs too much for as little of what I watch.
 
What services do people recommend as I'm in the market? Everyone basically has a service at this point.

Comcast is blacking out local hockey games because I stream using a friends DirecTV account.
We watch MLB/NHL in my house and already pay for Sunday ticket and NBA access.
 
Yea, I know the discounted double play in my area is like 89$x12 a month for 100mbs internet and Channels 2-109 or so... and a free dvrx12

This would cost...

49.99x12 for 100mbps internet
39.99 for tv *** AND Eats up part of my 1 terabyte Data Cap :(

total = 90$


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Not seeing the Advantage here?!?
 
Krazy925 said:
What services do people recommend as I'm in the market? Everyone basically has a service at this point.

Comcast is blacking out local hockey games because I stream using a friends DirecTV account.
We watch MLB/NHL in my house and already pay for Sunday ticket and NBA access.
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Your aware it's in the rules about blackouts.. it's not COMCAST/ TIME WARNER/ CHARTER doing that...
But I guess you gotta blame someone.. right?
 
HAHAHAHAHA I knew that this would be a bust. What else could anyone expect from a completely out of touch JV between NBC / Fox / Disney / TW?

edit: I do think the blonde girl is pretty cute though
 
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I'll just stick with their regular service. They aren't worth more than what they charge for that. If I want what they're new package is, I'll actually sign up for cable/satellite, because by then the price will be really close.
 
scojer said:
I'll just stick with their regular service. They aren't worth more than what they charge for that. If I want what they're new package is, I'll actually sign up for cable/satellite, because by then the price will be really close.
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Cable Satellite may be the same price by then but for how long? That's the appeal of streaming TV. Rates shouldn't go up much and if they do you can always cancel or switch plans with the click of a button. Otherwise you're looking at year+ contract, rates skyrocket after your first year, etc. Until cable/satellite providers change their policies they will always be the more expensive option.
 
msshammy said:
Cable Satellite may be the same price by then but for how long? That's the appeal of streaming TV. Rates shouldn't go up much and if they do you can always cancel or switch plans with the click of a button. Otherwise you're looking at year+ contract, rates skyrocket after your first year, etc. Until cable/satellite providers change their policies they will always be the more expensive option.
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Just no. Cord cutting is dead. The market has shown it will pay more so the companies extract it any way they can. THere is no difference between these offerings and cable TV.
 
msshammy said:
Cable Satellite may be the same price by then but for how long? That's the appeal of streaming TV. Rates shouldn't go up much and if they do you can always cancel or switch plans with the click of a button. Otherwise you're looking at year+ contract, rates skyrocket after your first year, etc. Until cable/satellite providers change their policies they will always be the more expensive option.
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Streaming = can cancel whenever, if the price goes up. Price can go up anytime.
Cable/satellite = month to month or contract. Price guaranteed until end of contract term, at that time, can be same price or go up. If it goes up, agree to another contract or search for service elsewhere.

Honestly though, I have zero interest in cable/satellite or the full package from Hulu.
I watch a few shows here and there, and I watch movies. Netflix and basic Hulu have been enough for me for several years, and I don't see that changing. I've actually used Hulu far less because Netflix keeps pumping out some decent original content.
 
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Axehandler said:
Your aware it's in the rules about blackouts.. it's not COMCAST/ TIME WARNER/ CHARTER doing that...
But I guess you gotta blame someone.. right?
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Worked at the beginning of the season so I dunno. (y)
Pretty shitty though. Playoff hockey works though :cool:
 
Ummm... people do know that Hulu is owned by Turner, Disney, NBC and Fox right? I fail to see how this surprises anyone. Hulu has been a string of bad decisions propped up by the fact they have exclusive access to content and the backing of the biggest media powerhouses.
 
Spire3660 said:
Just no. Cord cutting is dead. The market has shown it will pay more so the companies extract it any way they can. THere is no difference between these offerings and cable TV.
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At least you can watch TV without internet with the TV guys.
Internet goes offline, everything is offline with these streaming folks.
 
the main reason why i have hulu is so that I don't have to watch live tv. I basically already use it as a dvr service for the shows I like. Not really sure why anyone would want this.
 
Sheepbalz said:
the main reason why i have hulu is so that I don't have to watch live tv. I basically already use it as a dvr service for the shows I like. Not really sure why anyone would want this.
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Some people prefer to watch live TV the older generation for example grew up on just flipping through channels and seeing what's on. They don't like having to search for something to watch they want it spoon fed. I like having live TV as background noise mostly and something interesting pops up once in awhile I'll just glance over and be like "That's cool." then back to whatever I was doing.
 
I do watch some live tv, mainly the local news but that is over the air which I doubt hulu would be carrying anyways since none of the other streaming services offer it.
 
Axehandler said:
Your aware it's in the rules about blackouts.. it's not COMCAST/ TIME WARNER/ CHARTER doing that...
But I guess you gotta blame someone.. right?
Click to expand...

I bought NFL Sunday Ticket a couple years ago. I live in Oregon. I could see the Seahawks being blacked out. But, Arizona Cardinals? Why? It seemed like every game I wanted to watch, it was blacked out.

Now, I just stream using other methods.

I tried Sling for NASCAR, but it didn't have it on the FS1 network for the one I wanted to watch. Ended up streaming from some other site...

Without going for a huge satellite package, I cannot watch a weekly event for several months of the year. Make it more difficult to watch, and people will find an easy way to watch it.

Those blackouts from the NFL suck. Those races being broadcast on a certain station that is only on high priced services suck.
 
YouTube Advertiser drama is about clearing the way for YouTube to do this with YouTube TV. I think its going to be hilarious when YouTube gets a sinking feeling when this doesn't take off like anticipated.
 
Krazy925 said:
Worked at the beginning of the season so I dunno. (y)
Pretty shitty though. Playoff hockey works though :cool:
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I dont agree with blackout rules.. but sorta understand them.

Out-of-market games can be viewed using the subscription-based NHL Centre Ice and Rogers NHL GameCentre Live services, although in-market games are blacked out from both services to protect local broadcasters. GameCentre Live allows streaming of in-market teams if the user authenticates themselves as a subscriber to Sportsnet and/or TSN
 
Axehandler said:
I dont agree with blackout rules.. but sorta understand them.

Out-of-market games can be viewed using the subscription-based NHL Centre Ice and Rogers NHL GameCentre Live services, although in-market games are blacked out from both services to protect local broadcasters. GameCentre Live allows streaming of in-market teams if the user authenticates themselves as a subscriber to Sportsnet and/or TSN
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Yep... but I think it's dumb. Anybody can find live streams of the games for free. I'm not opposed to paying for the games I watch or for all games my team is involved in, but I'm not keeping traditional tv for sports. Sports kept me around an extra couple years but I still ended up canceling. Maybe instead of forcing people into the business model they want, they can cater to what people actually want....
 
grtitan said:
Do we need more proof of collusion?
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Probably more like getting screwed over by content providers (AMC, et al.) dictating stupid terms for access. $5/cable subscriber for ESPN anyone? hulu also gets the pleasure of getting fucked sideways by ~five different content stakeholders as well. Yeah! :oops:

Seriously glad that Amazon and Netflix are in the game, and that HBO went over-the-top. We'd be stuck with TGIF-era 90s sitcom horseshit if someone else didn't step it up.
 
phillyboy said:
Probably more like getting screwed over by content providers (AMC, et al.) dictating stupid terms for access. $5/cable subscriber for ESPN anyone? hulu also gets the pleasure of getting fucked sideways by ~five different content stakeholders as well. Yeah! :oops:

Seriously glad that Amazon and Netflix are in the game, and that HBO went over-the-top. We'd be stuck with TGIF-era 90s sitcom horseshit if someone else didn't step it up.
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It's those forced additions that drive the cost up. ABC probably said "ok, if you want such and such, you gotta include ESPN."

The fact that the there's a few major players that own a majority of the channels forces it into a package deal - hence why you can't just pick/choose.
 
Only game I have watched in the last year was the Super Bowl and that was streamed legit free and live.
 
Way too expensive.
I was at my parents house this weekend and they have cable. My dad was watching golf on his HD TV - but it was not an HD signal. I could not believe how poor the picture quality was. Not sure if the Masters was broadcast over regular TV channels (aka - OTA), but if so, it would have been 1080i and blown away the picture he was watching. OTA is free.
Sigh, I still miss Aereo. I could get OTA TV to a few more TVs in my house pretty cheap.
 
Why must they double dip? Even triple dip? Get paid by the consumer, advertiser, and show producer all at the same time? Does it really cost this much to provide streaming content?
 
You guys do realize Hulu is partially owned by Comcast, right? Did you expect anything realistic as far as pricing? Because I didn't.
 
"The pricing for Hulu’s live TV service, a competitor with cable television"

Good lord, Hulu is not in competition with cable television, they are cable television, aka Comcast +. Follow the corporate umbrellas, corps have been on a consolidation march right back to the Ma Bell days.
Hulu is just lulling the "cord cutter" crowd back into the cable companies pockets, while the cutters think they are winning this fight by using Hulu.

Love it when others see this to, nice one Cyraxx and EchtoGammut.

The only thing entertaining about this mega corp consolidation is when the mega corps bump heads due to each others greed. Of course, we still pay with endless lawsuits and infighting.
 
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