There are few streaming services as well-known and as popular as Hulu. One of Netflix’s oldest competitors, Hulu is an affordable streaming service that boasts a great selection of on-demand movies and TV shows — including an impressive slate of originals that holds its own against the legendary lineups on Netflix and Max. But Hulu is in a crowded market (or two of them, actually — for more on Hulu’s entry into the live TV streaming market, read our review of Hulu Plus Live TV). Can it hold its own against Netflix and Max — or, for that matter, its sister service Disney Plus? I revisited Hulu this year to find out, and I was impressed by what I found.
Hulu Pros and Cons
Pros
- Extremely affordable
- Great original content
- Recent episodes of some shows available
- Can be bundled with Disney Plus and ESPN Plus
Cons
- Basic plan includes ads
- Smaller library than pricier competitors
What You Can Watch on Hulu
Hulu offers two main subscription options: “Hulu” and “Hulu + Live TV.” The first one, which we’ll be talking about in this review, is an on-demand streaming service. Paying your subscription fees each month gives you access to a catalog of movies and TV shows, and you can stream any of those titles as much as you want and whenever you’d like to. (The second option, “Hulu + Live TV,” includes a cable-like selection of live TV channels. It competes with cable, as well as with other live TV streaming services like DIRECTV. It’s so different from the basic Hulu plan that it merits its own review, which is why I’m only going to be talking about plain-old “Hulu” in this review.)
Industry insiders who look at Hulu’s on-demand service would call it “SVOD,” which stands for “subscription video on demand.” The rest of us would just say that Hulu looks a lot like Netflix: It charges you a few bucks a month for unlimited streaming of a limited catalog.
There’s one major difference between Hulu’s approach and Netflix’s, though: Hulu has ads. On the basic subscription plan, your on-demand streaming will be periodically interrupted by short commercial breaks. These ads aren’t skippable. In my testing, I found the length of Hulu’s ad breaks to be pretty reasonable. Personally, I don’t mind breaks so much — they give me time to refill my glass of water or grab a snack. If you can’t stand them, though, you can always pay a little extra to subscribe to Hulu’s ad-free plan and do away with them entirely.
Like Netflix, Hulu has original content. Much of it is excellent. Hulu has won critical praise for “The Handmaid’s Tale,” a grim but excellent series based on Margaret Atwood’s novel. Hulu has made hits out of “Little Fires Everywhere” and “The Dropout,” among others.
Hulu also makes original films. If you’re looking for a place to start with those, I’d recommend the hilarious “Palm Springs” (2020). (I’m no culture critic, but you don’t have to take my word for it.)
Hulu’s licensed library is impressive, too, though it’s not quite as large as the ones you might find with some competitors (Netflix, for example, has more shows and movies — though it’s also more expensive than Hulu, which is something we’ll talk more about in a later section).
Hulu’s streaming rights deals aren’t always exclusives, so don’t be surprised if you see licensed titles in Hulu’s library that are also available on Amazon Prime Video — or even on a free service like Crackle. But some content deals are exclusives, and Hulu’s library is generally very impressive. It feels like something in-between the massive quantity of Netflix and the highly curated little library of Max: a medium-sized library with a lot of enjoyable content and very few true stinkers.
How It Felt to Use Hulu
Like most other streaming services, Hulu puts a lot of focus on content discovery features. Its menus are packed with recommendations, trending content, and other lists of movies and TV shows that its algorithms suggest you’ll be interested in watching.
Sometimes, all of the content discovery features on streaming apps like Netflix can annoy me. I know I can be pretty indecisive sometimes, but I’m okay with that: I’d rather just be able to look through an organized menu and figure things out for myself. I find it particularly frustrating when services like Netflix or Amazon Prime Video hide my watchlist, favorites, or “previously watched” sections behind their excessive recommendations. I have some great news: Hulu doesn’t have this problem.
While there are plenty of recommendations to be found in Hulu’s app, it’s also very easy to find your saved shows. It’s also shockingly easy to find menus of just movies or just TV shows, and — wonder of wonders — you can even drill down by genre within these categories (no “secret Netflix codes” required). This can sometimes make it clear that you don’t have a lot of options, which might be why other streaming services avoid it; I occasionally worked my way through every single title Hulu had in a given genre without finding something. But I’d rather have that happen and then go read a book than spend my whole evening flipping through algorithmic menus like the ones on Netflix, seeing titles multiple times in different categories and never being sure if I’ve seen every option or not.
Like its fellow Disney-backed service Disney Plus, Hulu also has a “hub” system that makes it easy to find content based on larger brands (and, in some cases, genres or themes). This doesn’t work quite as well on Hulu as it does on the brand-dominated Disney Plus, where categories like “Star Wars” and “Marvel” are obviously pretty meaningful to fans. But it’s a nice feature all the same, and it helps make Hulu feel a bit more organized and a bit easier to navigate.
I found Hulu’s user interfaces and menu systems to be superb. Interestingly, I think they work better with just-plain Hulu than they do with Hulu + Live TV because the latter starts stuffing TV-related content where it doesn’t belong (for more on that, check out my review of Hulu + Live TV). Hulu’s on-demand service gets full marks here, and I hope more streaming services take Hulu’s lead in the user experience department.
Using Hulu’s Features
While performing my testing, I realized that I’m not a particularly demanding Hulu user. Other than adding titles to “My Stuff” — Hulu’s simple and very effective watchlist/favorites system — I didn’t feel much need to use many of Hulu’s features. (I still tested them all out, of course!)
You’ll most often use Hulu to stream videos, but you can also choose to download a few for offline viewing. This feature is limited to mobile platforms. You can download videos and movies to up to five different mobile devices at one time, and you can save up to 25 total movies and TV show episodes (each download on each device counts separately toward this total).
Hulu also has user profiles, which is a very standard feature but still nice to see. You can set your own preferences and generate your own personalized recommendations without messing up the algorithm for your roommate, sibling, or significant other.
Hulu Streaming Quality
Hulu’s on-demand content streams at 60 frames per second and features picture quality as high as 4K Ultra HD — though the 4K content is pretty limited, and you’re more likely to end up watching your show or movie in 1080p. Hulu marks 4K-compatible content with a little “4K” badge, so it’s easy to track down 4K content in the service’s menus. Among other titles, Hulu’s originals are available in this top-tier streaming quality.
In my trials, I found Hulu’s streaming quality to be very impressive. As I’d expect from a long-tenured on-demand streaming service, Hulu was able to deliver reliable, high-quality streaming on all of my devices regardless of whether I was using a wired, Wi-Fi, or mobile network connection.
Hulu Platform Support
Platform support is a real strong suit of Hulu’s. Hulu’s latest app, which includes support for Hulu + Live TV as well as the on-demand version I’m talking about here, is available on every major streaming platform, mobile platform, web browser, and video game system. That includes all of our familiar favorites (like Roku, Fire TV, the Chrome browser, iOS, and Android) as well as some options that aren’t always supported by Hulu’s competitors (like the Nintendo Switch and — to my delight — the Firefox browser).
I found the Hulu experience to be very consistent across all of the different platforms. No matter which device or platform you’re using, you’ll recognize the Hulu approach and the great user experience I’ve been praising.
I tested Hulu on Roku, Fire TV, Chromecast, iOS, Android, Chrome, and Firefox.
Hulu Value
Hulu has a lot going for it, but its strongest suit may be its value. Hulu is strikingly affordable for a streaming service: It’s just $7.99 per month, which is half the price Netflix charges for its standard plan.
Of course, Hulu is different from Netflix. Its catalog is smaller. It also has ads, which users can pay a bit more to remove — ad-free Hulu costs $14.99 per month. But even with those differences accounted for, Hulu looks like an incredible value for the money.
Hulu’s pricing is reminiscent of Disney Plus pricing, which makes sense: They’re both owned by Disney. These streaming services are very cost-effective and seem to be built with subscription stacking in mind. It’s very easy to justify adding Hulu to an existing streaming budget without canceling something else; it’s even easier to combine Hulu with Disney Plus. The two are offered in a three-piece deal that also includes ESPN Plus.
Hulu Review Verdict
Hulu has slowly earned a place near the very top of the on-demand streaming heap. Hulu is much cheaper than Netflix, which makes it much easier to add to a budget or combine with other streaming services. It offers more bang for your buck, and it chips away at Netflix’s dominance with little advantages like the more straightforward organization of the Hulu menus and the enticing discount deal that bundles Hulu in with Disney Plus and ESPN Plus.
In short, former “little brother” Hulu has some big-time appeal, and the service seems to only be improving with time. Now one of the elder statesmen of the on-demand streaming service, Hulu doesn’t feel like a knock-off or a newcomer. Pound for pound, it’s one of the very best streaming services that money can buy.
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I am in the process of cutting the cord. I do not yet subscribe to any of the six providers not available, and I am looking for advice and assistance. But this review is inane.
It isn’t just how many channels you get. It’s **which** channels you get. Other services have a problem with Viacom, so holding that against Hulu is silly. The AMC lack is a more trenchant critique. You are simply in error in regard to DVR service for both Hulu and Sling. Offering HBO isn’t that big a deal — it’s called HBO Now.
But Hulu has sports. The number one reason most cable subscribers I know hesitate to cut the cord is live sports. If you aren’t a sports fan (and the writer plainly is not, given his complete lack of attention to it), this may not make sense. But sports is king in the U.S. Look at the ratings, especially for the NFL, but also for the NBA playoffs or March Madness.
Hulu has all the sports channels I could want, but for less money than anyone else. Sling’s offerings stink for sports fans. Reviewers keep writing about how cheap their basic package is, but the sports offerings are laughable. DirectTV requires a hefty chunk of change out of my pocket before it offers adequate sports coverage. PlayStation Vue was far, far out in front of everyone else till they increased their rates a few days ago, and even then their DVR service is better than Hulu’s. YouTube is not available in enough markets to be worth discussion. Fubo TV doesn’t have ESPN!
Thanks for the comment about sports. I’m about to switch to one of these services and I definitely want to keep watching sports live.
Thanks for the great comments I made tremendous sports fan and I have DIRECTV but I pay an out rages amount every month what I’m seeing on Hulu live is basically everything that I like to watch I had upgraded package just to get the golf channel with DIRECTV and this is included and Hulu live amazing thanks for all the good comments
Justin hit exactly why I chose Hulu… sports… and that is why I chose Hulu. The sports packages along with the 50 hours of cloud storage and the price made it pretty easy. I simply didn’t get all the sports channels I wanted nor the storage with Sling TV’s $40 package.
Looking for alternative to having to pay all the Subscription fees for like MLB TV and NBA League pass. Smart TV is just a bunch of Apps you can download, but you still have to pay for these channels. Why not just partner up with all your neighbors, everyone pitches in, and you run cables to everyone’s house???? 😜
The problem We have with HULU is its lack of SEATTLE area Local channels. We live in Western Washington State. We are Seattle Sea-Hawks fans. We looked over the HULU promises and believed that We could get the local FOX channel (KCPQ 13). Which broadcasts most of the SEA HAWK games. We were not able to get any LOCAL channels. HULU gave us Southern California channels as LOCAL. So yes We could watch all the California teams, but no LOCAL Seattle teams or stations. The only way to find out if Your LOCAL live TV stations are available, is to sign up for the free trial. Then You will see if Your area is included in Live Feed Tv. If HULU ever adds the Seattle area to its program We might try again. California TV stations do not provide LOCAL Sports or Weather, for those of Us in Washington State. TOO BAD.
Yes! I agree that it’s not the number of channels but WHICH channels are offered. Thanks for the plug of HULU for sports.
If you cut the cord, keep this in mind with Hulu! They are packed full of commercials. You can’t fast forward nor rewind past them. And if you watch the commercials and rewind it, be prepared to watch them again. They are the commercial police. I found Hulu to be to pricey and charges going up. They are making me go back to comcast.
Check out Philo. Is 25 a month. With this and Disney plus/Hilo + live and Amazon prime movies I have what I need.
Hulu sucks. The exon sports apps never work. I am getting rid of it. No service for their product.
Thanks so much for your reviews. I have cut the cable for economic reasons, not realizing that MSNBC is not included with my Roku and Hulu. I’m into my second week of the trial period. Can you suggest the cheapest way to add MSNBC? Sports is not a factor for this 84 year old widow. The advertising is also not a problem for me.
Take a look at Sling TV packages. Think this will be the one I’m going to use. I am not a sports enthusiast, so their lack of channels for this allows me other channels I would probably not get.
MSNBC is listed as one of the Hulu channels.
I have the same problem. I cut the cord for economic reasons and have Roku. I doesn’t have MSNBC, ABC, & sports. I’m not sure if I have made the right decision. I live in Madison, WI. I feel like I am missing quite a bit of what I was used to viewing. It does not seem like Hulu will be an answer. Perhaps someone will have another solution. I do not want to pay high fees. That was the reason I cut the cord. Are there any affordable choices.
I have Hulu and get msnbc and abc with no problem.you have to have the Hulu plus live tv package.
hows the user interface with live TV if Hulu?
I have Sling and the user interface sucks. No remote and you cannot easily navigate through channels, very clunky.
Thank you
Vic,
You can get all the major network channels (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX) as well as others for FREE. it’s called free over the air. Buy a regular rabbit ears antenna with the longest cord you can find. Mine was about $15 from Radio Shack. Walmart sells a little rectangular shaped amplifier (approx $12) you can connect that gives you a lot more channels and better picture. (Just let an electronics employee know you’re looking to amplify your rabbit ears antenna for free-over-the-air tv.) I started with an old box shaped tv so I needed a digital converter box that connected to my tv and the antenna connected to the box. But now I have a smart vizio tv and I don’t need the box. I just connect the antenna cord to the little amplifier and the amplifier directly to the back of the tv. So if you have the old style of tv, you need an “analog to digital” converter box (around $30), along with the antenna & amplifier. If you have a newer flat style tv, you only need the antenna and amplifier. You can set up your system with just the antenna, but you’ll be much happier. I get over 100 free channels. Many are foreign-language channels I don’t use. But I watch all the major networks I mentioned, I watch PBS, I watch the MOVIES channel and THIS Tv. I don’t have any sports channels, so if you like sports or some specific channels you’re missing, you’ll have to add a streaming service to use with your ROKU. I’ve used Sling, Philo, Netflix, Hulu, and now Frndly at some point in the past 5 years. If you have a computer or smart cell phone, do some Google searches asking how you watch XX channels (whichever ones you’re looking for) and you should find several articles that let you know which streaming services have those channels. Whatever you choose, keep checking every few months for other options. New streaming services are opening up all the time. I personally like Hallmark. I paid $35 to Sling, then $16-$20 to Philo, and now $8 to Frndly just to get the Hallmark channels, so obviously it’s worth reviewing your choices on an ongoing basis. There are numerous LIVE streaming options now that include more channels but a larger price tag – about $55/month. However, that may be your solution to find all the channels you’re missing. Good luck! You really can find some great options, all cheaper than cable. I highly recommend using the PBS app in Roku. There are a ton of wonderful documentaries that teach us what we never learned in school. Blessings!
Radio Shack?
I live in central Florida and my Hulu Live keeps buffering too much for my liking. I don’t like the large icons. I’ll keep Hulu live for a month to see if the buffering gets better. If not, I’ll go back to PS Vue.
I have Hulu plus live tv and it never stops buffering and cutting off from the internet……so I’m looking for an alternative
It is important to keep in mind that the price of Hulu also includes the Hulu on demand streaming service that has been competing with the likes of Netflix and Amazon for years. The strength of this on demand service has historically been current television, often becoming available the day after air. Of late Hulu has been adding strong original contact, a greater selection of films and prior seasons. The current television would significantly negate need for DVR as much of what you might record would be available on demand. With all of this in mind, Hulu is a more than viable contender.
As a note, the $39.99 price includes Hulu’s on-demand content, which is priced stand-alone at $7.99. For those who already subscribe to Hulu’s on-demand service, Live TV is $32 more.
So far Hulu is terrible. It frequently pauses and literally stopped in the last 10 seconds of a game. It’s horrible. The interface is extremely hard to use and you never know if you’ve actually scheduled your shows because there’s no automatic setting that I could find. Save your money, use another service. Hulu sucks!
I totally agree! Hulu sucks! A lot of times I put a show on and I get the volume but a black screen. I like to relax after a day with the grandkids and lay in bed and watch a series but I either have to endure 7-8 ads in a row every 5-10 minutes or get up and go across the room to interact with ads I could really care less about. Live tv is a bunch of crappy stations and have crappy shows. Most of the time there is nothing playing on a few channels and others the same show is on across the board. I am cancelling.
I refuse to pay damn near 60.00 a month for crap. I can stream on Tubi, Sling, Vudu and so many other streaming services for free.
I strongly agree about the commercials. As an engineer I like to have good information before I comment about something.
I have used my stopwatch to time.
From the start of content to start of commercials:
I have measured 7.5 seconds to 11 seconds
Number of commercials at one time: 3 items to 8 items
Commercial break time: 30 seconds to 3.25 minutes.
Content time vs Commercial time: 38% to 51%
I use HULU regularly and enjoy just about everything. I have to mention that I am not a fan of sports so please understand that for time use I will be somewhat biased
I’m baffled that you complimented their interface. It is just horrific.
It’s now the year 2021 and Hulu’s user interface has only gotten worse. Add to that if you pause a show and walk away and then come back and hit play it will either start the show over, start another episode of the show, or even play a random episode of a random show you’ve never heard of. Deleting shows from the que sometimes won’t delete them. Sometimes watching a show won’t mark it watched. I can go on but this is just terrible.
I don’t want to watch TV on my computer or phone but on my television, so which company offers the best deal that will do that? My Cox Cable bill is just way more than I can afford and I don’t even have HBO or any of those channels, just a package that includes the Hallmark Channel, WE tv, Bravo, Lifetime, etc.
As mentioned in an earlier comment, Hulu is best suited for the sports enthusiast who is looking to cut the cord on cable/satellite. Listen to these sports options: ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNews, NBC Sports, CBS Sports Network, BTN, SEC Network. Can’t beat that line up. Hulu also has most of the basic lineup that cable/satellite has. The picture is excellent. Each streaming service will attract its own crowd but Hulu is the option for the sports fan.
Dalton, you forgot ESPN3, Fox, Fox Sports Regional, FS1, FS2, SEC Network, Big Ten Network.
My smart TV, is not compatible for Hulu live streaming. Can I use a Roku to live stream Hulu and is there any additional monthly fee to do this?
Been using Hulu Live TV since October 2017. Getting ready to cut them out. I find it hard to navigate lots of commercials up to 300 seconds that’s one of the reasons I cut the cord. I’m running 100+ Mbps and it buffers. Better things out there.
Hulu with Live TV is a pain in the ass. The constant buffering, skips, freezes, repeating of scenes over and over and over again, it’s annoying. For the price I’m paying, I should not be having these issues. To be honest, Hulu with Live TV is not even worth it. The number of times I have contacted their tech support for this junk is unreal. Even though it’s a beta version, it should not have been released until all of the issues were fixed. I’m looking for other options cause this app sucks.
I know this is almost 4 years old but these are the same issues I am experiencing…and no it isn’t my internet connection….no problem with YouTube.tv….Hulu live tv is just crud.
I would like to cut the cord with Spectrum. I am looking for Fox News, History Channel, TLC, Discovery and Nat Geo. Does any package carry these channels and if so how much we are in the Los Angeles area?
I’m looking for that type of channels too
I agree with others about Hulu live TV buffering is terrible. I try to watch Cramer on Mad Money for the past two days, and it’s terrible. The commercials are playing, but Cramer is still talking. The live TV has sucked so far. I just cut the cord finally after doing all kinds of research, and have so far only signed up for Hulu with Live TV because of the channels I watch, and Hulu has them. Too bad the service is terrible. I will probably cancel, and try Sling next. I bought two Rokus ( one for my 2016 LG 4k HD TV, and the other for my 2008 Panasonic Plasma HD TV). That set me back $135. I also signed up for Showtime for the first month, but haven’t used it that much, so will drop that. Hulu charges $8.99 a month for that. Have not really had streaming issues watching old movies, but the live TV from Hulu is terrible with buffering. My Comcast double play TV/Internet got up to $236 a month, so it was bye bye finally. I now pay $55 a month for 60 Mbps for internet and streaming with Comcast. Tack on another $52 a month for Hulu with Live TV, for big savings, too bad Hulu doesn’t live up to their services. I hope Sling is better. If it’s the same with Sling, I will just resort to buying rabbit ears for local stations, and maybe the $10.99 package for Netflix to watch movies.
Hulu asks for your zip code to see what channels you get but they don’t tell you if your IP address changes (no fault of yours), then your channels change so you no longer get what you have paid for, your channels. Other stations you have no idea where the town is at or even close to you. Please beware.
I too, have Hulu Live. It constantly buffers with plenty of streaming speed. A lot of the time, the voices don’t sync, when it goes to commercials, you are still hearing the program you were watching. On our favorite local channels, when we begin watching our 7 PM show, you get the 4 PM news broadcast – 3 hours behind! To watch our favorite prime time programming, we almost always have to watch it the next day because of one or all of the above reasons. I have called customer support various times. They apologize, say they are aware of the problems, and are working on it. No changes yet! I’m looking for a different streaming service!
What others have said. Constant buffering on Hulu Live. “We’re having trouble loading your program – try again.” Screens. Short snippets of live TV repeat and then continue. Longer sections – usually with commercials – repeat over and over and over. You’re watching live TV and then you realize you’re now watching a program that was on two, three or four hours earlier. They especially seem to have an aversion to Rachel Maddow: while she is on you get repeats of earlier MSNBC programs. When you tune-in and select a live program it may take several tries to actually see it. Instead you get earlier programming. I’ve wasted my money on it for four months but have decided to drop Hulu Live – I may keep plain Hulu – and go with streaming Sirius/XM radio for my MSNBC addiction. It’s much cheaper and I know from listening in the car that it is seamless and reliable.
I’m hooked on PBS which I can get (more or less) with my over-the-air antenna but I don’t see their channels listed on any skinny Bundle. I’ve bought an Amazon Fire Stick but no PBS channels. At the moment, I’m with Spectrum and record everything on my 8 year old TiVo and pay my Continuing Care Retirement Community $39/month for cable.
I have Fire TV and it has the PBS app and you chose the local station. You may have to add the app.
I tried Sling for a couple weeks now and while the program streaming is good quality their offering is not. I signed up with them due to the availability of channels that I currently watch but when I went in to search for those programs found that they are only available in “limited network areas.” Therefore I cannot get what I signed up for. I am trying Hulu just for the trial period to see if it does at least offer the programming it says it does. I am very disappointed with Sling so read the small print folks! There is a way to see what program is available by zip code.
I am finding the same with sling. Local sports blacked out.
I live in Houston and I love sports. We have a channel on Xfinity (I pay $180.00 a month for cable only) called Roots. This allows me to watch my home teams Astros and Rockets games. If I cut the cord, I believe I will lose this option of watching my home teams? Any suggestions. No wonder young adults don’t care for sports anymore, they can’t watch them!
I am considering cutting the cable but my disabled husband watches Fox News. I only can find Fox News Sunday on Hulu. Does anyone have any suggestions?
Sure, we wrote a whole piece on watching Fox News without cable:
https://cordcutting.com/how-to-watch-fox-news-without-cable/
We have YouTubeTv. They just raised their price to 65.00 per month, but they have all the sports channels, including Olympic channel. We’ve been paying 54.95 but they just added the Viacom channels and upped the price to 65.00. They have movies, all the local and all the fox channels. They have a number other channels available but they offer the TCM and Freeform, no Hallmark channels, but I get them on frndly for 7.99 with 90 days DVR. Anything else I want I can get with the free Pluto. It’s got OAN, NEWSMAX and Blaze. Over 100 channels and is totally free. I’ve got Hulu for 7.99 but think I’m going to drop it. I don’t watch it that much.
It’s not clear to me if I would get Fox News Live with Hulu? Can you tell me the most inexpensive way I can watch Fox news with Hulu.
You can watch Fox News with Hulu with Live TV. It’s $39.99 a month.
Not anymore! Going up nearly 40%….😥😥😥
Look, the problem is still the same. Cord or no cord I am still paying for so many “channels” I will NEVER watch. So when will I be able to subscribe directly to those I will watch and not have some middleman, Hulu, Sling, Verizon, Comcast, Spectrum, Frontier or whoever to deal with? For example go directly to Bravo and subscribe to their programming, and forget about MTV and the other 50 or so..
Guys, One question on Golf Channel. Is it a real live channel?
It is!
If you are a second home owner then Hulu live may not be for you. You can stream from a streaming device at only one location. You can use your “wide screen” phone, Ipad or other device as you travel or in your second location. For me this is a significant negative.
Watching TV on my phone is not my cup of tea.
100% agree. This feature needs to be changed fast!
Hulu Live is great IF you only use your account in one place. But for anyone who travels frequently or has more than one house that they use there streaming systems at, it SUCKS. You have to use your zipcode to set a “home” for your account. But you are only able to use this account in that zipcode. So for those of us who live in a large city that has several different zip codes, you can only use this in your home location. This also means that if you have more than one home; vacation home, lake house or lodgings used for work related trips, you are SOL. I travel for work and my husband and I watch our tv shows together as often as possible when we are apart and cannot do that with hulu and will be switching back to direct.
100% agree! They should change this feature FAST.
I’m thinking of getting Hulu but from what I read it’s not worth the time or effort
This is super helpful — thank you!
Thank you for reading!
I recently subscribed to Hulu TV Live. 60 channels sounds great but there’s not some additional Channels I would certainly watch if available such as OAN and Newsmax. I chose this program to get the ESPN channels, SEC, local channels abc nbc & cbs , Fox News, Fox Business and a few others everything else is a total waste!! As a senior citizen and on a fixed income I try to get what I want for the cheapest price. Are there any plans to add additional channels that are not liberal cable but have a little better choice for conservatives. There is no balance in the news channels.
Question – I am not sure how “cutting the cord” saves me money. My Xfinity (X1 Starter Pro+ Dp / Internet) service costs about $125 a month and I get 125+ Channels (more than I need + local sports + DVR box) with 600 Mbps Internet speed. Even if I cut out TV service, I will still need Internet service which is about $65/month. Now, to get back to square one, I will have to subscribe to a streaming service (Hulu / Sling) and pay $60 a month for same local TV channels. In short, pay Xfinity $125/month or pay Xfinity $65 + Streaming service ($60) = $125 per month. No savings $ at all. Am I missing something here?
Not necessarily! Cord cutting saves money by cutting pay TV, but you can eat back into those savings by adding other types of pay TV back in. If you’re dead set on getting live TV and need certain channels, it’s possible that you won’t save money by switching to streaming.
A few things to keep in mind: Are you on an introductory rate with Xfinity? If so, cord cutting might be the cheaper option once your Xfinity bill switches to the standard price. If you’re not a huge sports fan, you might want to check out Philo, which is much cheaper than Hulu + Live TV because doesn’t have sports, news, or local networks. Finally, you could consider using on-demand services (like Netflix and regular, no-live-TV Hulu) and antenna TV for a cheaper alternative to the live services.
I’m sorry but Hulu is a terrible service. I’ve had live for well over a year and can’t tell you how many time I have to clear the cache or reboot my firestick to get it to just work. And no, it’s not a firestick issue. Netflix always works just fine.
Amen brother! We also experience the same issues, and only with Hulu. Changed to firestick 4K, which hasn’t helped at all, plus it has it’s own problems playing nicely with Hulu’s poorly designed channel guide service.
Srew you Hulu for stealing Hockey from the fans. You gonna
charge 40 dollars a game to watch the sport now! Canada might actually have an open rebellion against you!
Hulu is the worst. Stream lagging, glitches, stop and start broadcasting. And they’re raising the price….for what? So we can miss live streaming? Fix your problems before we leave you.
i agree, the app is horrible, constant buffering and getting thrown out of the app. they need some serious fixs soon
1queenly
Hulu live sports freeze and are blurry. Used other services, unique problem
Hulu is crap. Pause your show, restart from the beginning. Tired of this pathetic software platform that can’t handle the basics. Find some new programmers.
It’s time I leave Hulu along the side of the highway. Too expensive and they aired the first episode of Law & Order (season 24), then shut it down.
So now I can save my 7 bucks plus tax every month!
Hulu Live + sucks terribly. Massive delays on sports (live comparison to YouTube TV & up to 2 min delay on various games) unable to reorder the channel line up and in reading the Hulu technical comments both of these have been complaints for years (hello, this is 2022!). Heading back to YouTube TV.
like others say, half the time it’s nearly unwatchable on the TV, with more time spent hanging, buffering, and crashing and reloading than actually running. the other half the time it only hangs a few minutes every hour. (frontier internet, firestick) however, on an ipad, there is no problem.
most of the time there’s no error message but sometimes it comes up with error p-dev320. googling that gets a bunch of sites that say it’s a Hulu problem. lots of rebooting, reinstalling, etc. didn’t help, just like the websites say it probably won’t.
same thing has started happening with Disney+ but to a much smaller extent
We are getting a little miffed at HULU WOKEness. Seems this Streaming service-HULU-is evolving into a far left institution. Is there a more of middle of the road TV streaming organization that offers better movies? More sensible TV adds, not promoting shit that should not be seen on TV?
We watch movies, good honest news networks, college sports, documentaries, and series like Yellowstone, History material….No Leftist crap!