Like clockwork, Hulu is again raising rates on its live TV streaming bundles — one year after the Disney-controlled company last hiked prices.
The new prices are $10 per month higher than Hulu’s current fees and will go into effect Dec. 18, 2020. The higher rates apply to both current and new subscribers. Hulu began notifying subscribers of the price hikes Monday.
Under the new pricing, the baseline Hulu + Live TV with ads in the VOD content bundle is rising to $64.99 per month (an 18% increase) and the version with no VOD ads is rising to $70.99 per month (up 16%). Both bundles provide more than 65 live channels, including the four major broadcast networks, and access to Hulu’s large on-demand library.
Hulu last increased prices on the internet pay-TV packages exactly a year ago, when it boosted the monthly rates to $54.99 (with VOD ads) and $60.99 (without ads) in December 2019. Before that, Hulu raised the price of the base live-TV bundle in January 2019, from $40 to $45 per month.
The Hulu subscription VOD-only plans will remain unchanged at $5.99 per month with ads and $11.99 per month for no ads.
Hulu operates the largest live TV streaming service in the U.S., with 4.1 million subscribers as of Oct. 3 (up 41% from a year earlier), competing with Google’s YouTube TV, Dish’s Sling TV, FuboTV and others. Most Hulu customers are on the SVOD-only plans: Overall, Hulu had 36.6 million subscribers (up 28% year over year) at the end of Disney’s most recent quarter.
The Hulu + Live TV lineup includes all four major broadcast nets — ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC — in virtually all U.S. markets, as well as cable channels including ESPN, FS1, CNN, Fox News, FX, TNT, TBS, Bravo, Food Network, Freeform, Lifetime, USA, Cartoon Network, Disney Channel, MSNBC and CNBC. Hulu also sells add-ons for HBO Max, Showtime, Starz and Cinemax.
The live TV packages let subscribers stream different channels on two screens at a time and record up to 60 hours on the cloud DVR (with upgrade options available).
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