hugovive raised its starting price to 70 dollars a month but for some cord cutters
the service has become a better value than before the price hike should you sign up keep watching
michael here and this video is packed with new information about hulu's live tv streaming service
and let's begin with the plan and pricing hugo live increased its starting price by
five dollars to 69.99 per month and that was right before the start of 2022 in december 2021.
now this followed a pattern of annual price hikes for the service i've been reviewing
hulu live since it first launched in 2017 and believe it or not the starting price back then
40 bucks in december 2020 i uploaded this video titled i was wrong about hulu's live tv streaming
service and at that point i began recommending youtube tv for most first-time streamers and
youtube tv remains my top pick for now but hugo live has made some changes that have increased
its value and i'm going to talk about those coming up in the next two sections keep in mind hulu live
stopped offering a free trial when it raised its price in december 2021 so don't spend 70
on hulu live until you hear what i've got to say next to cloud dvr storage and this is the
first change that has increased hulu live's value and you could say that hulu live's base plan dvr
went from worst to first or tied with first the service now offers unlimited cloud dvr storage
and you can save those recordings for up to nine months in addition hulu live now lets you fast
forward through the commercials on your recordings that is something you would expect with any
dvr but here's the context previously hulu live offered only 50 hours of cloud dvr storage
with the base plan and you could not skip ads for that a paid upgrade called enhanced cloud dvr was
available and in the past i've criticized hoodoo live for all of its upselling including that
enhanced cloud dvr add-on but with this change that add-on is gone and some people will save
money hulu live's unlimited cloud dvr storage is available to new and existing subscribers in the
base plan no extra charge and it matches youtube tv's long-standing dvr offering and there's one
more hulu live add-on that i would really like to see go away i'm going to touch on that a little
later on right now let's move on to the other big change that hulu live made channels and content
now hulu live is what i call a cable 2.0 service it offers dozens of popular cable networks sports
news and entertainment plus you get your local broadcast tv stations included in the bundle but
aside from the live tv channels that you would get with a traditional cable or satellite subscription
hulu live now includes something else the disney bundle since launch hulu live has always given you
access to hulu's on-demand streaming library but disney plus and espn plus were added in december
2021 now stick with me this is more important than you may realize and i've got a recent news
headline to help me explain maybe you've heard about the show dancing with the stars it has
been on the abc broadcast network for 16 years not anymore the show is moving to streaming on
disney plus why's that matter well the average age of a dancing with the stars viewer is 63 years old
according to this article and that's not exactly the typical disney plus consumer children so by
moving dancing with the stars to streaming disney is hoping to broaden the appeal of disney plus
making it a must-have service for households with and without kids and having disney plus included
at no extra charge with hulu live could make the service more valuable over time because when you
purchase it separately the disney bundle is 13.99 a month and i want to circle back to talk a little
bit more about hulu live's channel lineup because it is pretty well rounded enter your zip code on
hulu live's website to see exactly what you get networks owned by disney paramount warner brothers
discovery nbc universal and fox are all included and nfl network in nfl red zone were added in 2021
i'm recording this video during baseball season so i want to mention that hulu live does not carry
bally regional sports networks and to stream those you can check out directv streams
choice plan i mentioned earlier a second add-on that i'd like to see hulu live get rid of let's
touch quickly on multiple screens hulu live has an add-on for unlimited screens on your
home network and three on the go it is 9.99 per month and the reason why a lot of people pay for
this add-on is because hubu live only allows two simultaneous screens and that can be a challenge
for some households some people get confused by this and that two screen limit just means that
you can only watch hulu live on two screens at once you can have the hulu app downloaded on as
many devices as you want tvs phones and the rest but if you are actively trying to stream hulu live
you can only watch it on two simultaneous screens or you can pay for that unlimited screens add-on
for singles and couples not a big deal but i'd like hulu live to include a third stream at no
extra charge it would really help larger families control their costs let's continue and we continue
with the user experience you can access hulu live from the same app as hulu's on-demand service
one app two services so what i generally tell people is that if you don't like hulu's interface
you're probably not going to be happy with hulu lie i've got a few tips to help you out though
when you set up a profile for the first time do not skip the personalization trust me on this
you can choose your favorite shows networks even sports teams and the more that you use hulu live
the better these recommendations will be on the home screen that's here where live and on demand
content is featured when i click on the live tab at the top of the screen i am taken to the
live guide and to the left you see channel guide filters including favorites watch here select the
program from the live guide and a screen like this will appear with these choices watch live
start over and record here is what a show page looks like and from here you can watch available
episodes on demand but take a look at the other options use like and dislike settings to improve
recommendations add shows to your my stuff think of it as a favorites list but don't stop there
also set a recording for shows if you want to be able to skip through the ads later on you can
record new episodes or new episodes and reruns and when you want to access your dvr navigate to the
my stuff tab and then just click on recordings let's face it hulu live's interface is less
cable-like than youtube tv or directv stream but you've got to look at the complete picture so
why don't we talk about that complete picture the pros and cons of hulu live and i'd say the first
pro is the well-rounded channel lineup as well as access to the content from the disney bundle
another pro and new in 2022 is that unlimited dvr storage matching youtube tv's offering also
something i haven't touched on in this video but still true no contracts or long-term commitments
to control costs you can sign up one month and cancel the next that choice is yours while we're
talking about costs that brings me to the cons and i'd say 70 a month is pretty steep there are
some live tv services that are cheaper than hulu live and on top of that no free trial anymore
room for improvement with multiple streams hulu live's main competitors all offer more
simultaneous streams than two user experience is a big one and particularly the live guide it is due
for a refresh hopefully sooner rather than later for most people the monthly price and channel
lineup are the two most important factors when choosing a live tv streaming service and you've
got other options too i talk about those in my beginner's guide to cutting the cord see you there