Hulu announced today that it’s raising the monthly price of its live streaming service from $54.99 to $64.99, effective December 18. The increase will affect both new and existing customers.
The streamer alerted subscribers of the new pricing in e-mails, and a notice posted on its web site.
The live service includes more than 65 channels and the company’s Video on Demand library. (Hulu also sells a separate VOD service with ads for $5.99 a month and a no-ads version for $11.99. Those prices are not changing as of now.)
Hulu’s decision to hike its rates comes after YouTube TV raised its monthly price from $50 to $65 in June, and FuboTV, a smaller live streaming service, hiked its monthly prices by $5 in July. In addition, Netflix recently raised the price of its standard and premium plans by $1 and $2 a month respectively.
Streaming once was regarded as an inexpensive alternative to the rising cost of cable and satellite service. However, streaming companies are now raising their prices to offset escalating programming costs, the same factor that has largely driven higher cable and satellite prices in the last several years.
With the price gap narrowing between streaming and traditional pay TV service, it remains to be seen if cord-cutters will return to cable and satellite. Recent financial filings for the third quarter showed that the rate of cable and satellite defections slowed although the overall numbers are still historically high.
Hulu Live last raised its monthly price in November 2019 when it went from $44.99 to $54.99.
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My prices for my TV viewing have not increased a dime since I cut the cord almost 2 years ago. They are still at $0.00 yet I get all the viewing entertainment I will ever need. My Amazon Prime account which I have had since 2008 and would have if I had TV or not, a rooftop antenna, a FireTV Recast, non-pay YouTube and I am saturated and satiated with my content. When I sent DirecTV packing I was paying $90 per month.22 months ago x $90 = $1980 not counting any price increase they imposed after I cut. I had to buy some equipment but I have no recurring costs. I have 5 TVs running off the recast and probably spend about $400 to equip the whole setup. Regrets? NO!
I applaud you sir! We cut the cord 3 years ago and now help others find the cheapest alternatives if they are willing to make a few sacrifices. We basically show them that if they can change their viewing habits, there are many free streaming channels (with ads) that are available via Roku, Fire TV, Android TV and others. If they still want to pay for some cable channels, they can easily put together a nice package for under $50. Here’s one we mentioned on our site (tv.mgzcom.net):
Replace Cable For Less Than $50
CBS All Access (15,000+ episodes) – $7
Disney+ Bundle (Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+) – $13
Philo (60+ cable channels) – $20
Peacock (15,000+ hours of content) – $5
Pluto TV (250+ channels) – $0
Stirr (70+ channels) – $0
Tubi (50,000+ movies) – $0
Xumo (190+ channels) – $0
The lucky people are those who live within a 10 to 20 mile range of a metropolitan area and can receive an over the air antenna signal that way they don’t have to rely on cable, satellite or steaming services to watch television.