Hulu Launches Its Live TV Streaming Service (fortune.com)

Hulu has officially unveiled its $40-a-month live-television streaming service to help it better compete against larger rivals like Netflix. Fortune reports: On Wednesday morning, Hulu announced the launch of the public beta version of Hulu with Live TV, which starts at $39.99 and allows users to stream live and on-demand programming from more than 50 TV channels running the gamut of live news, entertainment, and sports. The cost of the new service also includes access to Hulu's existing $7.99 premium streaming subscription and access to the company's library of archived content, which includes more than 3,500 film and TV titles. Subscribers to the new live service also get 50 hours of storage for recording programming, the ability to create up to six separate Hulu viewer profiles, and two simultaneous streams per account. The launch comes days after Hulu announced that it secured the final major piece in its live-television puzzle in the form of an agreement with Comcast's NBCUniversal to add several NBC- and Telemundo-owned channels to the Live TV lineup. That deal gave Hulu access to all four major broadcast networks: ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox. The new live service also includes popular cable networks such as CNN, ESPN, FX, Fox News, TBS, TNT, and the Disney Channel. The only premium cable network currently available on the new live service is Showtime, which costs an additional $8.99 per month. Cable networks such as HBO, AMC Networks, Viacom's Comedy Central and MTV are among those not currently included in Hulu's new service, though the company said on Wednesday that additional premium network add-ons will be available soon.

Comments

Meh

[dugancent]

With all the streaming services available, it's not much cheaper than cable. I'm happy with my $9.99 Netflix and $7.99 Hulu. Anything above $30 (total for all streaming video) is a waste of money.

Re:Meh

[Moheeheeko]

If Hulu wants to make more money, they should stop forcing paying customers to watch commercials. That's the main reason I don't have a Hulu subscription, and i'm sure i'm not alone.

Re:Meh

[Moof123]

Mostly commercial free, shows form some providers get "limited" ads at the beginning and end even with the $4 surcharge. WTF?

Re:Meh

[rogoshen1]

regardless, fuck advertisements. that's precisely why many people (myself included) have cut the cord.

it's why netflix is so successful.

At this point time being forced to watch or listen to advertisements is an insult.

Madison Avenue's days are numbered.. (okay not quite yet, but one can hope.)

Re:Meh

[Areyoukiddingme]

With all the streaming services available, it's not much cheaper than cable.

Cheaper? It costs more than cable. I should know. Charter has been spamming the ever-living shit out of me with actual paper mail every week for literally years, trying to get me to pay them $30/month to add cable TV to my Internet service. They're a major fraction of the contents of my recycle bin. This service appears to have even fewer channels (Charter's list includes AMC, Comedy Central, and MTV), but adds the on-demand stuff already available from Hulu for $8/month. Which you can buy for, effectively... $10/month. Wat?

Basically the TV networks think they've found a way to shore up their sagging viewership numbers by offering the same damn commercial-riddled thing they've been offering for the past 50 years, but "on the Internet!" Which somehow makes it better? Mmmm, no. Maybe they think viewers are as easily bamboozled as advertising buyers, who are spending way more money per eyeball than they used to, but haven't noticed yet. If they ever do... Oh boy.

Re:Meh

[grep -v '.*' *]

they should stop forcing paying customers to watch commercials. That's the main reason I don't have a Hulu subscription,

But I do have a Plex subscription. And an OTA Tivo Bolt. And even a TPB subscription!

I'm currently engaged to a girl who seems to like commercials -- I suspect it's just because she's had no other way of interaction or choice. We had a slight run-in last night when we were watching a DVD she bought and I was griping about watching the leading forced-commercials for I swear 5 minutes. "You'll just have to put up with it" she said. "No, I _DON'T_", I replied, and did something else in another room, returning when I was finished and they were nearly done.

Once I'm a bit more organized, physical DVDs and BRs go onto Plex, while near-live shows come from Plex (SiliconDust) or live shows from Bolt (either commercial auto-skip or brute-force FF and then back up slightly.) And if a few conversions "accidentally" make it in from TPB, that's just fine as well.

Does ANYone remember back when cable first came out -- they weren't even going to SHOW commercials os some (most?) stations. What was it, TBS (Turner) started out semi-commercial free; they only showed commercials BETWEEN movies. A&E had actual arts. The only "commercials" I remember when they first came out were upcoming programs and times. And then someone noticed they could make extra money for nothing. (Don't know about the free chicks -- *I* sure never saw any. Then again I didn't control a channel, either.)

No thanks

[NotQuiteReal]

Looks like a big bundle of stuff, where you pay for things you don't want. Just like when I canceled cable.

Brilliant.

Hulu the Master Negotiators

[CrashNBrn]

So Hulu negotiated deals with it's Parent companies? Amazing.

Hulu announced that it secured the final major piece in its live-television puzzle in the form of an agreement with Comcast's NBCUniversal

Hulu @ Wikipedia

Hulu (stylized as hulu) is an American subscription video on demand service owned by Hulu LLC, a joint venture with The Walt Disney Company (through Disney–ABC Television Group) (30%), 21st Century Fox (through Fox Entertainment Group) (30%), Comcast (through NBCUniversal) (30%), and as of August 10, 2016, Time Warner

No AMC?

[mydn]

No AMC? That's a non-starter. I selected PSVue because it was the only one that had the channels that I want (which includes AMC) and has a decent user interface (which means no Sling). I don't even use the PSVue service very often, I just watch most shows the next day on Hulu without commercials. I mostly use PSVue to record Walking Dead and The Americans.

Re:No AMC?

[gfxguy]

The ability to skip commercials on their "DVR" service would cost an extra $20 (expanding your hours from 50 to 200, also). So now at $60/month for commercial skipping where you don't even get some of the best current shows, it's really just a waste. The promise of streaming services is failing - it's still far easier to deal with a nightmare like comcast and their DVR service than to get 5 different online streaming services, all with different UIs and restrictions, to legally get all the content you're interested in. In some cases it's just not possible - like AMC, where I don't think there are ANY legal, commercial free offerings at any price.

Commercials = nope

[markdavis]

Pay streaming service that includes forced commercials. Nope! No thanks! I will stick with cable and my TiVo plus Netflix.

What kind of morons run these companies?

[DontBeAMoran]

People are dropping cable to get away from expensive bundles. The only company that seems to truly understand this is Netflix. And unlike Hulu, Netflix is available world-wide.

touch choices

[xfizik]

Wow. $10 for Netflix vs $40 for useless live TV crap. What a tough choice. NOT.