People who are considering signing up to Hulu or Hulu with Live TV had better hurry up: on Thursday, October 17, both will see price increases on their monthly plans, and so you'll be able to enjoy the lower price for a few months if you sign up now.
Many people look to Hulu with Live TV because in a competitive world of live TV streaming services, its single plan and single price make it a lot less confusing than some complex rivals like Fubo, DirecTV or Sling TV.
Hulu with Live TV is a lot more than that, though; sure, it lets you stream a wide range of cable channels over the web, but a subscription also lets you watch from Disney Plus, ESPN Plus and Hulu with their libraries or live streamed events. Hulu's live TV offering really is a one-stop shop for entertainment fans.
So you can use Hulu with Live TV to jump between cable channels like ESPN, USA and CNN, then stream a movie on Disney Plus or a new show on Hulu, and finish the day by streaming a live match on ESPN Plus. For one price, you get countless hours of watching.
Hulu with Live TV isn't for everyone, as some may find that its single price point and particular channel line-up doesn't fit with what they're looking for in a cord-cutting service. So let's dig into it, so you can decide whether it's what you're looking for.
What's the difference between Hulu and Hulu Live TV?
HULU & HULU WITH LIVE TV
THE BASICS: A standard Hulu subscription is $7.99 a month and gets you the full on-demand catalog.
NO COMMERCIALS: For $17.99 a month you'll get the on-demand catalog and almost zero adverts.
HULU WITH LIVE TV: For $76.99 a month you'll get more than five dozen channels, plus the on-demand catalog. $89.99 per month for no ads.
DISNEY BUNDLE: Or sign up for the Disney Bundle — that's Hulu, Disney Plus and ESPN Plus all for just $12.99 a month.
You have to think about Hulu as two separate things with mostly the same name. Hulu proper is the on-demand streaming service that has all kinds of movies and TV shows from a number of different places. Sometimes they're exclusive to Hulu —say, The Handmaid's Tale —and sometimes they pull from multiple studios.
Hulu also offers FX shows after the air on traditional TV, as well as where you'll find some truly excellent streaming exclusives like A Teacher, Devs and Mrs. America.
Hulu with Live TV is exactly what it sounds like —it's live TV, available through Hulu.
Does Hulu with Live TV have a free trial?
Currently there's no Hulu with Live TV free trial, although the service has offered a month-long one in the past.
You can get a one-week trial of Hulu itself if you want (the video-on-demand service, not the live TV option), but if you want to try out the cord-cutting services, you'll need to pay for it at full price.
How much does Hulu with Live TV cost?
Hulu and Hulu with Live TV are available together for $76.99 a month. That's for the ad-enabled tier and it's $89.99 if you want to get rid of ads. You can't get the live TV service without the video-on-demand one as they're tied together.
With your subscription you can get more than 80 live channels (see the full list below), the ability to watch on two devices at one time and the ability to record 50 hours of live TV onto cloud-based storage.
In addition to all of the Hulu content and live TV the service offers, Hulu with Live TV now also features Disney Plus and ESPN Plus as standard features with either subscription option.
- Hulu With Live TV: $76.99 a month
- Hulu With Live TV and no VOD ads: $89.99 a month
How to sign up for Hulu or Hulu with Live TV
- In your favorite web browser, visit Hulu.com/live-tv.
- Choose whether you want Hulu without ads, or Hulu with ads or Hulu with Live TV.
- Enter email address, choose a strong password and feed Hulu your name and birthdate and gender.
- Click Continue, then enter your payment information. You can use a credit or debit card, or choose "Express Options" for PayPal or AMEX Express Checkout.
- Now choose any premium add-ons like HBO, Showtime, Cinemax or STARZ. (If you've chosen Hulu with Live TV, you also can choose from the live add-on options.)
And that's that. You can now start watching anything and everything on Hulu.
The Disney Bundle
With Disney owning Hulu, it is offering US consumers what is known as the Disney Bundle, which combines Disney Plus, ESPN Plus and Hulu (all ad-enabled) for $14.99 per month.
There's another tier that excludes ESPN Plus, but only costs $9.99. A few other tiers let you get ad-free streaming too, but both cost more.
The live channels you get with Hulu Live
Hulu with Live TV currently has more than 80 channels. It's possible that what you get where you live may vary slightly (local and regional rules still apply here, especially when it comes to local broadcast channels), but the broad strokes should remain the same.
Here are the Hulu with Live TV channels:
- A&E
- ABC (select markets)
- ABC News Live
- ACC Network
- Adult Swim
- Animal Planet
- BET
- Big Ten Network
- Bloomberg Television
- Boomerang
- Bravo
- Cartoon Network
- CBS (select markets)
- CBS Sports Network
- CBS News
- Cheddar News
- CMT
- CNBC
- CNN
- CNN International
- Comedy Central
- COZI TV
- Crime + Investigation
- The CW
- Dabl
- Discovery Channel
- Disney Channel
- Disney Junior
- Disney XD
- E!
- ESPN
- ESPN College Extra
- ESPNU
- ESPN2
- ESPN News
- Food Network
- Fox (select markets)
- Fox Business
- Fox News Channel
- Freeform
- FS1
- FS2
- FX
- FXM
- FXX
- FYI
- Golf Channel
- HGTV
- History
- HLN
- Investigation Discovery
- Lifetime
- Lifetime Movies
- Localish
- Military History
- MotorTrend
- MSNBC
- MTV
- NASA
- National Geographic
- National Geographic Wild
- NBC (select markets)
- NBC LX
- NBC News Now
- NewsNation
- NFL Network
- Nickelodeon
- Nick Jr.
- Olympic Channel (until September 30)
- Oxygen
- OWN
- Paramount Network
- POP
- QVC
- SEC Network
- Smithsonian Channel
- Start TV
- SYFY
- TBS
- TCM
- Telemundo
- TLC
- TNT
- Travel Channel
- TruTV
- TV Land
- Universal Kids
- USA
- Vice
- VH1
If you want to see what movies and TV shows are now streaming on Hulu with Live TV, check out our breakdown of what's new on Hulu in September.
What add-ons are available with Hulu with Live TV?
Live channels aren't the only thing you can get with Hulu With Live TV. So long as you don't mind paying for them, there are a number of extras that can be had. Here's how they break down:
- HBO Max: $14.99. a month
- Showtime: $10.99. a month with a free one-week trial
- Cinemax: $9.99 a month with a free one-week trial
- STARZ: $8.99 a month with a free one-week trial
- Entertainment add-on: $7.99 a month, adds American Heroes Channel, BET Her, CNBC World, Cooking Channel, Crime & Investigation, Destination America, Discovery Family, Discovery Life, Magnolia Network, Great American Country, Military History Channel, MTV2, MTV Classic, Nick Toons, Science Channel and Teen Nick.
- Español Add-On: $4.99 a month, adds CNN en Español, Discovery en Español, Discovery Familia, ESPN Deportes, Fox Deportes, NBC Universo, and History en Español.
- Sports Add-On: $9.99 a month, adds NFL RedZone, TVG, TVG2, Sportsman Channel, Outdoor Channel and MAV TV.
- Unlimited screens: $9.99 a month with a free one-month trial, includes ability to work with three screens on the go
DVR space for Hulu with Live TV has been upgraded. After previously providing up to 50 hours of DVR space as standard for all accounts, with the option for an add-on feature that allowed for 200 hours on DVR, Hulu with Live TV now offers unlimited DVR space no additional cost. Anyone who was paying for the DVR space add-ons will see their monthly bill reduced by those amounts. In addition, the unlimited DVR feature allows subscribers to fast forward through commercials at no extra cost
One thing to note, though the DVR space is unlimited, Hulu says that the content will only be available in the DVR for nine months.
What devices support Hulu with Live TV?
If you can watch Hulu, you can watch Hulu With Live TV. They're built into the same app. And that means that you can watch Hulu With Live TV on just about every modern piece of streaming hardware.
That includes on a web browser on a Mac or PC. That means you're good to go on an iPhone or Android Phone, or and iPad or Android tablet. You can watch Hulu With Live TV on Roku and Amazon Fire TV or on Apple TV and Android TV. Chromecast and AirPlay work, too, as do Xbox, Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 and 5.
Certain smart TVs are supported, too, including select models from Samsung, LG and Vizio.
Does Hulu With Live TV have live sports?
Perhaps you've seen the commercials? Yes, Hulu has live sports. That includes broadcast events like you'll find on ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC, plus live sports on networks like ESPN and FS1.
There also are games on ACC Network, SEC Network and the Big Ten network.
The only caveat here is that local and regional channels can vary depending on where you live, so you'll want to plug in your ZIP code with Hulu first to double check.
Can you record live TV on Hulu?
Yes. Hulu with Live TV comes with 50 hours of cloud DVR storage out of the box, so you can record up to that much before having to make some tough choices about which Real Housewives series has to go.
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Phil Nickinson
Phil spent his 20s in the newsroom of the Pensacola (Fla.) News Journal, his 30s on the road for AndroidCentral.com and Mobile Nations and is the Dad part of Modern Dad.
With contributions from
- Michael Balderston
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