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Hulu + Live TV review: The single best value in live-TV streaming services
You get not only a cable-TV substitute, but also Disney+, ESPN+ and "regular" Hulu.
Looking for a cable TV replacement? Hulu + Live TV is exactly what it sounds like: "Regular" Hulu, with its considerable on-demand library of shows, movies and original content, plus live TV similar to what you get from cable. On top of that, the bundle includes Disney+ and ESPN+, which helps soften the blow of a fairly steep price. But is this four-in-one service easy to use? Does it serve up all the best channels, plenty of sports, good DVR features and seamless integration? Let's find out: Here's my Hulu + Live TV review.
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Rick Broida/Yahoo
VERDICT: Despite a few shortcomings, Hulu + Live TV represents a better value than its competitors thanks to bundled Disney+, ESPN+ and "regular" Hulu.
- Simple, novice-friendly interface
- Includes "regular" Hulu, which has tons of on-demand content
- Includes Disney+ and ESPN+
- Unlimited DVR
- No added fees
- No 4K on live content, 1080p live streams limited to select devices
- No regional sports networks
- Perplexing Hulu/Disney integration
- A few interface annoyances
- Search feature needs work
Hulu + Live TV: What it'll cost you
Hulu's pricing is pretty straightforward, but there is some real cause for confusion once you dive in, so stay with me. The service itself costs $82.99 per month for the standard tier (which, again, includes Disney+ and ESPN+) or $95.99 if you want ad-free viewing. But take note that while the latter option removes commercials from Hulu proper and Disney+, it doesn't remove them from live TV.
An example: If you stream an episode of Bob's Burgers from Hulu's on-demand library, you can enjoy it ad-free. But if you watch an episode of Bob's Burgers on Fox or FXX (in other words, "live"), you'll have to sit through commercials.
Unless, that is, you record that live episode for later viewing, in which case you can fast-forward through the commercials (in standard DVR fashion).
As for the bundled Disney+, it's also provided with-ads at the $82.99 tier and ad-free at $95.99. ESPN+ has ads, period, which makes sense given that it's all real-time broadcast content.
There's some math to consider here: "Regular" Hulu by itself costs $9.99 or $18.99 monthly (with and without ads, respectively). Disney+ is $9.99 or $15.99 (same), and ESPN+ would run you $11.99. Bundle them (without a live TV component), and they range from $10.99 (two services with ads) to $26.99 (three services, mostly ad-free).
So those three services have a combined value of about $27 or $47 per month, depending on your ad and bundling choices. Assuming you actually want them, they give Hulu + Live TV a pretty big value edge over the likes of Fubo ($85/month) and YouTube TV ($83), which don't include any such extras.
Incidentally, both Disney+ and ESPN+ operate independently of Hulu + Live TV; you'll use the same e-mail address and password to sign into their apps on whatever TVs and devices you use. It would be nice if they were all integrated under one app roof, but for now that's not the case.
Well, sort of: As of a few months ago, the Disney+ app incorporates Hulu and ESPN+ content. So why not just use that? Because it doesn't currently have live TV, just all the on-demand stuff from Hulu proper. Actually, the ESPN+ stuff is live... so, yeah, it's confusing.
And there's a fairly obvious problem that Disney has yet to address: Disney+ is intended for families and, as such, home to exclusively family-friendly content. But Hulu carries a lot of shows and movies that are definitely not for kids — and it's all mixed together, at least on the Disney+ app side. Parents can filter the Hulu stuff out by way of child profiles — if they know to do so. Personally, I found it pretty disconcerting to see the likes of The Handmaid's Tale (a Hulu original) one row down from Bluey and Toy Story 3.
Hopefully Disney (which owns Hulu) will eventually roll everything — including live TV — into a single app, with a much stronger delineation between family and non-family programming, but for now it's all pretty messy. Further complicating matters is the fact that Hulu + Live TV and Fubo will soon be effectively merging, though the details on how and when that happens remain unclear. Thankfully, subscriptions here are only month-to-month, so you can jump to and from competitors with no penalty — unlike, say, most traditional cable or satellite TV plans, which lock you down for a year or more.
Hulu + Live TV: A pretty interface with some irksome quirks
I tested the service on a Sansui S55VOUG TV, which runs the Google TV operating system. The first time you sign in, you're required to choose your preferred genres, shows, sports teams and more, all via a somewhat odd and unintuitive interface. (After making your selections for each, for example, there's no obvious way to continue to the next screen.) This is so Hulu can make viewing recommendations for you, which is fine, but it needs to be made easier — or optional.
The overall Hulu interface is attractive and easy to navigate, relying on the common left-side flyout menu for access to things like Search, TV, Sports and My Stuff. Within them you find categorical rows of viewing choices: Movies for You, Continue Watching, Newly Added TV and so on.
The Live section (the "+ Live TV" portion of Hulu + Live TV) is similarly streamlined; everything is neatly organized into categories: Recents, Local, Channels (the main guide), Sports, News, Movies and Kids. Missing is a "favorites" option, which some of the other live-TV services have, meaning there's no way to quickly browse the channels you watch most.
The main channel guide is strictly alphabetical; you can't change the sorting order. If you know exactly what channel you're looking for, this makes it easy to find. But if you'd rather see them in genre clusters (news, sports, etc.), you can't.
Wait, that's what the categorical menus are for, right? Right, except that while Recents and Local show you the corresponding subset of the main channel guide, the other categories don't; they merely give you rows of what's on now and what's coming up. I wish they'd show channel-guide subsets as well.
Hulu could use some work on the search front, too. Although results appear dynamically, narrowing with each additional letter entered on the onscreen keyboard, there's no support for voice search. And while I got a lot of results for a "Tom Cruise" search, they were weirdly organized: First a couple of his movies, then a section of "related to Eyes Wide Shut" movies (um, okay), then more movie results (including some not starring Tom Cruise).
What's more, if you search for a particular movie or show that's showing on a live-TV channel but also available for streaming, you're given two seemingly similar options: record and "add to my stuff". This is potentially confusing to anyone who doesn't understand the subtle difference between the two. (Why record something if you can already watch it on-demand?)
Much more annoying: When you pause live TV and rewind past a previous commercial break, even one you've already watched, you can't fast-forward past it; you have to watch that same break again. (Fortunately, this didn't seem to be an issue with recorded shows.)
Hulu + Live TV: Channels and image quality
Hulu's live-TV lineup includes a generous selection of channels (close to 100), among them the five major local networks (ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, PBS) and a solid helping of sports — though no regional sports networks like on DirecTV Stream and Fubo. (Channel selection varies depending on your location; you can enter your ZIP code on Hulu's site to see exactly what's available.)
Your subscription includes unlimited DVR and up to seven individual user profiles — any of which can be toggled for Kids Mode, which limits viewing to age-appropriate programming. However, there's no granularity available here; the mode is either on or off. You can't tailor one profile to, say, teenagers and another to toddlers.
While a lot of live-TV streaming services top out at 720p resolution (which can make video look a little soft), Hulu does offer 1080p — but only with certain TVs and streaming devices. If you have an Apple TV (4th-gen or later), an Amazon Fire TV or Fire TV Stick, or one of select Samsung TV models, you should be able to view most channels in 1080p.
But Android TV, Google TV, Roku and other devices are, for the moment, limited to 720p. I can't say this is a deal-breaker, because DirecTV Stream, Fubo and Sling don't even offer 1080p. It is frustrating, though, that Hulu doesn't do 1080p across the board — which, incidentally, YouTube TV does.
On the other hand, this really matters most for sports, as most live-TV programming (news, reality shows, sitcom reruns, etc.) doesn't benefit that much from the jump to 1080p. Image quality isn't great at 720p, but for a lot things it's "fine".
As for 4K content, there's none on offer here yet, at least for live TV; much of Disney+ and Hulu's on-demand stuff is indeed streamed at 4K (think: newer TV series and movies, Hulu originals, etc.).
Hulu + Live TV: The verdict
If you want to kick the tires before subscribing, there's a 3-day free trial available. But again, Disney's aforementioned integration of Hulu content means things may soon change for both services — don't be surprised if Hulu goes away as a separate app, for instance. And the details on that Hulu + Live TV and Fubo combination remain murky as well. In both cases, how these services are bundled — and what they cost — will likely continue to disrupt the live-TV streaming landscape.
In the meantime, I like Hulu + Live TV, warts and all. If you're already a regular-Hulu subscriber and/or you like Hulu's on-demand content, this is arguably the most logical choice for adding live TV into the mix. It's priced in line with the competition and gives you Disney+ and ESPN+ at no additional cost.
That said, I think DirecTV Stream does a better job replicating the cable-TV experience (and with lots more sports channels to boot), while YouTube TV wins out if you want more 1080p (and optional 4K) content, without all the device limitations.
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