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Tag: hulu

  • Disney Plus, Hulu raising prices in December

    Disney Plus, Hulu raising prices in December

    Disney Plus announced back in August that it will launch its own ad-tier service in December. One of the few streaming services that didn’t allow customers to pay less for its services and see ads, Disney Plus is aligning its offering to the market.

    Unfortunately, along with the new ad tier, Disney Plus announced a price hike for its ad-free streaming service. Starting December 8, Disney Plus will cost $11 per month, as opposed to just $8. Customers who don’t want to pay for the ad-free tier can keep paying $8 per month, but they will get ads.

    Since Disney Plus still allows customers to pay in advance for its streaming services, you have until December 7 to grab a Disney Plus annual subscription and avoid the upcoming price hike, at least for one more year.

    As far as Hulu goes, things are a bit more complicated. While the ad-supported and ad-free subs remain the same at $8 and $15 per month, respectively, all Hulu + Live TV bundles will be slightly more expensive starting next month.

    For example, the $70 per month bundle featuring Hulu with ads, Disney Plus without ads, ESPN+ with ads, and live TV with ads will cost $75 come December 8. Additionally, the same bundle but with no ads on Hulu will be priced at $83 per month, $7 more than the current price.

    From December 8 onward, the cheapest bundle including Disney Plus and Hulu will cost $70, but it will screen ads on all services included in the bundle. Customers who have already paid the $3 extra fee for ad-free Disney Plus via Hulu will get to keep service beyond December 7, but the option will no longer be available afterward.

    The only good news is that ESPN+, one of the streaming services included in the bundles, will not get a price hike and will still be available for $10 per month.

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  • Amazon Music Unlimited’s monthly subscription price set to slightly increase

    Amazon Music Unlimited’s monthly subscription price set to slightly increase

    Every once in a while, major streaming services are adjusting their subscription prices, especially if they prove to be successful. Netflix, HBO, Hulu, Spotify and many other similar streaming service have had their prices increased a few times in the last couple of years.

    The latest on that list is Amazon Music Unlimited, which is expected to increase its monthly subscription price by $1. Many Amazon Music subscribers have started to receive notifications via email that confirmed the monthly Amazon Music Unlimited Individual Plan price will increase from $7.99 to $8.99 .

    Strangely enough, Amazon did not announce anything yet, but it’s probably just a matter of time before the move is officialized. According to the email, the new price for Amazon Music Unlimited will go live on May 5.

    On the bright side, the Amazon Music Unlimited Family Plan price has been kept the same, so anyone who currently pays the $14.99 monthly subscription will not be affected by the price hike.

    With access to more than 75 million songs in HD, as well as several important top-tier audio features, including Spatial Audio, Amazon Music Unlimited is one of the cheapest offerings on the music streaming services market. Despite the $1 price hike, Amazon Music remains a great deal for those looking for high-quality music content at a low price.

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  • Disney raises prices at Hulu effective October 8

    Disney raises prices at Hulu effective October 8

    Hulu was one of the few streaming services that didn’t increase prices this year. Unfortunately, that’s about to change as Disney has just confirmed that Hulu price tiers will be increased effective October 8.

    The price of Hulu’s live TV service plans will increase by $1 starting October 8. Taking into consideration the new price hike, Hulu’s ad-supported tier will cost $6.99 per month, while the ad-free tier will be going up to $12.99 monthly.

    The Hulu price hike follows the other increases in recent months at ESPN+ and Disney+. The report mentions that the reason for the price increase could be the addition of thousands of Bollywood titles and Hotstar originals to the streaming service.

    Also, the new price for Hulu’s tiers might make the Disney Bundle more appealing for those who wish to save some bucks (36% to be more precise). Hulu confirmed that the price of the Disney Bundle will not change due to the price increase. It’s also important to mention that the price hike won’t affect Hulu + Live TV plans.

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  • Hulu Originals adds HDR support for Apple TV 4K, Roku and other devices

    Hulu Originals adds HDR support for Apple TV 4K, Roku and other devices

    When it comes to adopting new technologies, Hulu is clearly behind the curve. For example, HDR support is one of the many features that users have been requested for a long time. While we’re happy to report that Hulu has finally implemented the feature, HDR is only available for some of its Originals on select devices.

    Spotted by an AVS Forum user, the new addition to the service specifically works for select Hulu Originals such as Nine Perfect Strangers, The Handmaid’s Tale, Little Fires Everywhere, Castle Rock, Four Weddings and a Funeral, The Runaways, and several others.

    Hulu also revealed that HDR support is only available to viewers with select devices, including Roku, Fire TV, Fire TV Stick, Fire TV Cube, Apple TV 4K, Vizio, and Chromecast Ultra. The new feature requires the latest version of Hulu’s app.

    HDR streaming should provide viewers with a higher contrast range for much finer picture details. If you want to make sure that the content you’re watching is streamed in HDR, you should look for a special badge that typically appears on the details page of the TV show or movie.

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  • Hulu Plus Live TV adds NFL Network at no extra cost, new sports package available

    Hulu Plus Live TV adds NFL Network at no extra cost, new sports package available

    Hulu is one of the few streaming services that didn’t increase its prices very often. On the contrary, the service added more than a dozen new channels at the beginning of the year at no extra cost. Today, Hulu Plus Live TV is adding another new channel for which customers won’t have to pay extra since it’s part of the basic $65 monthly subscription: NFL Network.

    But that’s not the only new sports channel offered by the streaming service. Hulu promised back in April that it will add NFL RedZone to its offering by early August and that customers will have to pay a fee to watch it.

    Today, Hulu announced that the NFL RedZone is available as part of the new sports add-on, which costs $10 per month. Aside from NFL RedZone, the new sports package includes channels like MAVTV Motorsports Network, Outdoor Channel, Sportsman Channel, TVG, and TVG 2.

    NFL Network is available to all Hulu’s Live TV subscribers starting today, while the new sports add-on will also launch today.

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  • Hulu app finally adds support for higher resolutions on Android TV

    Hulu app finally adds support for higher resolutions on Android TV

    It’s hard to understand why Hulu has been limiting streaming resolutions to 720p on Android TV until now, but just about every other streaming service offers at least support for 1080p. Not to mention that most of its competitors in the US have already upgraded their streaming services to 4K resolution at no additional costs.

    Thankfully, Hulu has decided that it finally time to upgrade its streaming service and offer customers at least the same level of quality the competition currently offers. The Hulu app for Android TV now features two additional streaming options: 1080p and 4K.

    Keep in mind though that to benefit from these improvements, your Android TV device must support these resolutions. There’s no official word on the changes, but many Reddit users that own Android TV devices like the 2019 Shield TV noticed Hulu can now stream at 1080p resolution.

    At least one 2017 Sony Bravia TV user confirmed the Hulu app now supports 4K streaming. It looks like these improvements are slowly rolling out to Hulu customers across the US, so we’re not sure when exactly they’ll be available to everyone.

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  • Hulu launches new rewards system for select viewers

    Hulu launches new rewards system for select viewers

    After increasing the prices of its streaming services, Hulu announced a new rewards system for those who love to binge. A new ad system is now available for Hulu viewers who like to watch TV shows back-to-back, the company announced.

    The new ad experience has been specially designed for binge-watchers, so here is how it will work. If you plan to watch an entire season of your favorite show in one sitting or at least several episodes, you will certainly qualify for Hulu’s new rewards system.

    Let’s say you’re watching a show and you reach the third episode, then you’ll be able to choose a reward from Hulu, as the streaming service will let you choose from either an ad-free episode or a unique offer from its brand partners.

    Speaking of brand partners, Hulu announced that for the time being, it will give binge-watchers offers from the following brands: Kellog’s, Maker’s Mark and Georgia-Pacific. Of course, Hulu may add more brands in the future, but for now, you’re limited to these three. Or, you can always choose the ad-free episode and don’t bother with any special offers from these advertisers.

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  • Hulu is the latest streaming platform to announce a price hike

    Hulu is the latest streaming platform to announce a price hike

    Hulu is just the latest name on the long list of streaming services that increased their prices within the past few years. Netflix, YouTube TV, and AT&T TV Now are just some of the most popular platforms that admitted defeat and decided to make customers pay more for their services.

    Starting December 18, customers who wish to subscribe to Hulu + Live TV will have to pay no less than $55 per month, up $10 from its current price of $45 per month, Hulu announced. Of course, existing customers will be affected by the price hike as well, so they should see the changes reflected in their subsequent billing cycle after December 18.

    The new price better reflects the substantial value of Hulu + Live TV and allows us to continue offering all of the popular live news, sports and entertainment programming included in the plan.

    Hulu recommends those who can’t afford to pay for Hulu + Live TV to choose one of its less expensive on-demand plans during those months when there’s nothing interesting to watch that would only be available through Hulu + Live.

    Hulu + Live TV includes all of Hulu’s on-demand content, access to over 60 live sports, news and entertainment channels, as well as Hulu Originals like This is Us, The Good Doctor, Family Guy, ER and Lost.

    The price changes might be hard to stomach for many Hulu customers, but at least they’ll have the option to switch back and forth between plans to best suit their needs.

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  • Hulu update brings offline downloads to iPhone users

    Hulu update brings offline downloads to iPhone users

    After making its mobile app more accessible to users, Hulu announced another important update that brings a much-requested feature: offline downloads. Whether you’re planning to travel or just want to be sure that you have your favorite TV shows with you at all times, you can now watch Hulu whenever you wish with this new feature.

    The bad news is it’s only available for iOS users, but Hulu says that offline downloads will come to Android users “soon,” so we’re confident that it won’t take too long for the company to bring the feature to a larger audience.

    So, available today on iOS for views on Hulu (No Ads), the new feature allows you to download thousands of shows and movies, including past seasons of hits series like Family Guy, Desperate Housewives, and ER, as well as Hulu Originals such as The Handmaid’s Tale.

    To use the new feature simply head to the Downloads tab at the bottom of the screen and you should be able to access any downloaded content. Make sure to tap the “See What’s Downloadable” tab to browse through all the titles that you can take with you on the go.

    Keep in mind that not all content on Hulu is available for download, so if you’re looking for a specific title, you’ll see a download icon on the details page if it’s available for download.

    Hulu also confirmed that users can download up to 25 titles across 5 different devices. Also, you’ll have up to 30 days to watch the content that you downloaded. Finally, for watched content, the download will expire two days after starting playback, but you’ll be able to renew an expired download when online if the content is still available on Hulu.

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  • Hulu announces new changes to its app to make it more accessible

    Hulu announces new changes to its app to make it more accessible

    Hulu continues to bring improvements to its app on as many platforms as possible. Although no new updates are available at the moment, the streaming service will be getting important accessibility enhancements very soon, Hulu confirmed in a blog post.

    In fact, if you have a Roku platform, the changes announced today should already be available for you, but Android, tvOS, iOS, and other living room devices will get these new features in the coming months.

    First and foremost, it’s worth mentioning that the update focuses on text legibility and screen reader capabilities. The most important change is the enhanced text opacity that will certainly improve readability.

    Hulu users can enable the screen reader, also known as the audio guide on some devices, by heading to settings to turn on the feature. These screen readers will assist viewers with visual impairments by vocally guiding them through the Hulu platform. Once the update is released for a certain device, it will be applied automatically, so you don’t have to search for anything yet.

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  • Hulu Live TV coming to Android TV in early August

    Hulu Live TV coming to Android TV in early August

    Hulu announced earlier today that its Live TV app will be available to Android TV users starting next month. The Hulu Live TV is already part of the Android 9.0 Pie update that is now rolling out to NVIDIA Shield TV units, but the app is said to be released in waves over the coming weeks.

    Anyway, starting early August, Hulu Live TV, and the updated UI will be available across a range of Android TV devices, including Sony’s Android TV, Xiaomi Mi Box, Hisense Android TVs, and, of course, NVIDIA Shield.

    In case you watch Hulu on any of these compatible devices, you’ll be able to subscribe to Hulu Live TVand gain access to live and on-demanded programming from more than 60 channels, including news, sports, and entertainment in one place.

    For the time being, the Hulu Live TV and the updated UI are compatible with the Android TV device mentioned above, as well as Apple TV (4th gen.), Amazon Fire TV devices, Amazon’s Echo Show, Roku devices, Xbox One, iOS and Android mobile devices, Nintendo Switch, select LG and Samsung TVs, VIZIO SmartCast TVs, Windows 10, Mac and PC browsers, and Chromecast.

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  • Hulu now valued at $15 billion

    Hulu now valued at $15 billion

    Hulu is now valued at $15 billion following the company’s repurchase of a 9.5% stake owned by AT&T.  The telecommunications giant received $1.43 billion for its stake in the video streamer. Before the deal was announced, entertainment giant Disney owned 60% of Hulu via a joint venture. Comcast’s NBC Universal unit owns 30% of Hulu. Both Disney and Comcast will decide how to split up the chunk of equity that was just bought from AT&T.

    AT&T acquired the 9.5% ownership of Hulu when it purchased Time Warner last year. The company said that it plans on using the proceeds of the sale to pay down some of the $176.5 billion in debt on its books as of the end of last year. Because the deal did not require regulatory approval, it has already closed. Based on the price paid for AT&T’s 9.5% stake in Hulu, the latter has risen in valuation from $5.8 billion in 2016 to $15 billion. During the same time period, Hulu competitor Netflix has seen its value explode from $41 billion to $152 billion. Disney expects Hulu to turn a profit by 2023, and have 40 million to 60 million subscribers by fiscal 2024.

    “Warner Media will remain a valued partner to Hulu for years to come as we offer customers the best of TV, live and on demand, all in one place.”-Randy Freer, Chief Executive Officer, Hulu.

    Even though Disney owns a majority of Hulu, it’s not stopping the company from launching Disney+ this coming November. Priced at $6.99 per month, the service will feature 500 films from the Disney library along with 7,000 episodes of television shows from the Disney Channel and some original programming.

  • Apple may have a surprise subscription service

    Apple may have a surprise subscription service

    We’ve heard a lot about what to expect from Apple’s planned event on Monday. We know that Apple likely won’t have any hardware to announce since it quietly already launched two new iPads and its second generation AirPods as well. We’re expecting some sort of TV service and a news subscription service, maybe even an Apple credit card, but a new report says there might be another subscription service announced that we didn’t know about.

    Apple might be getting ready to announce a game subscription service for iOS devices. Many will call it “Netflix for games,” but calling everything the “Netflix of whatever” often ignores companies that actually exist, so we’ll say it’s more like a digital version of Gamefly. Although it’s unclear if Apple will be announcing the game service on Monday, the report says Apple is talking to partners to build up the service. The way it would work is users would pay a monthly fee to get access to select games that would normally be paid and Apple would distribute the revenue (minus its cut) to developers based on how long users spend playing each game.

    Depending on the games made available as part of such a service, it could end up being the surprise star of the show for Apple. As we get closer and closer to the event, Apple’s video service is sounding less interesting as the latest rumors make it out to be a glorified Apple TV homescreen rather than a real competitor to something like Netflix or Hulu. Apple’s news service may be okay, but without big names like the New York Times, it’s hard to imagine that generating much excitement. But, a subscription game service could be pretty great if done right.

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  • Time Warner signs up for Hulu joint venture

    Time Warner signs up for Hulu joint venture

    Time Warner will become a 10% owner of Hulu, joining The Walt Disney Company, 21st Century Fox, and Comcast in the joint venture.

    Turner’s entertainment, sports, news and kids networks including TNT, TBS, CNN, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, truTV, Boomerang and Turner Classic Movies will be available live and on-demand on Hulu’s new live-streaming service, which is slated to launch early next year.

    With no set-up costs or installation, Hulu’s new service will offer an intuitive and personalized interface, and instant access to live and on-demand content, across hundreds of living room and mobile devices.

    Hulu will continue its current offering of ad-supported and ad-free subscription video on demand products to complement both traditional pay TV packages as well as the new streaming service.

    Also, the company said it remained focused on acquiring iconic and award-winning programming like Empire, Homeland, Seinfeld, Curious George, South Park and Fear The Walking Dead, as well as creating original programming that builds upon its success with shows such as The Mindy Project, The Path, Difficult People, 11.22.63 and the Golden Globe-nominated Casual.

    “Our investment in Hulu underscores Time Warner’s commitment to supporting and developing new platforms for the delivery of high-quality content and great consumer experiences to audiences around the globe,” said Jeff Bewkes, chairman and CEO of Time Warner.

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