Last week, Disney announced price increases in October for all of its streaming services. This means that Disney Plus, Hulu, and ESPN Plus will increase their prices starting October 17, as will Hulu Live TV.
That last component might have gone unnoticed by many other people when they were faced with the surprise that almost every single Disney streaming service and package increased in value (only Disney Duo Premium still has the same value). But Hulu Live TV is one of the most productive opportunities for cabling, and its value may be significant enough to knock it off the list.
If you watch our YouTube TV vs. Hulu Live TV showdown, you’ll see that the setups are almost identical, but each has a clear advantage.
For YouTube TV, this merit lies in its sports functions. Between catching up on key games, multi-viewing, and $100 off NFL Sunday Ticket, it’s a no-brainer to give it our 2024 Tom’s Guide Award for Best Sports Streaming Service.
But Hulu Live TV offers its subscribers a free Disney Trio Basic Bundle, worth $17 per month. With this package, you get Disney Plus with ads, Hulu with ads, and ESPN Plus, which offers many live TV shows, movies, and sports, in addition to what you get with over 95 live TV channels from Hulu Live TV. For many people, this is why it’s enough to sign up for Hulu Live TV.
But now, that explanation for why to subscribe is much less convincing, which could eliminate Hulu’s merit over YouTube TV.
Starting October 17, Hulu + Live TV will cost $82.99 a month for its base ad-supported plan. That’s $10 more than YouTube TV, which costs $72.99 and often offers a limited-time discounted rate to new subscribers. Given that you can subscribe to the Disney Duo Basic plan (Disney Plus and Hulu with ads) for just $10.99, it’d only cost you 99 cents more a month to get YouTube TV, Disney Plus and Hulu versus Hulu + Live TV, Disney Plus, Hulu and ESPN Plus.
As you can see from the table above, Hulu Live TV now has only two advantages: it’s 99 cents less expensive, and it has ESPN Plus. But YouTube TV still offers subscribers a much greater sports viewing experience and now it’s only spending a little less than a dollar more per month to get all the screens and videos that Disney Plus and Hulu have to offer.
The only thing missing is ESPN Plus, which, as you can see in our ESPN Plus review, is a streaming service you can live without.
I recently wrote that increases in transmission value are here to stay, and I’m still firmly in them. But if Disney wants other people to sign up for Hulu Live TV, it will have to oppose this price increase.
Or, at the very least, you want to reduce it to the $2 per month of accrual you provide to most of your streaming. Disney might think the math adds up: 3 for every $2 increase equals Hulu Live TV’s $6 price increase; However, as I have just stated, that is obviously not the case.
Malcolm McMillan is a senior at Tom’s Guide and covers all the newest TV screens and streaming movies. That means news, analysis, recommendations, reviews and more for almost anything you can watch, including sports! If this is visual on a screen, you can write about it. Previously, Malcolm worked at Tom’s Guide for over a year, focusing on synthetic intelligence (AI), audiovisual technology and virtual reality headsets.
Before writing for Tom’s Guide, Malcolm worked as a fantasy football analyst for several sites and also briefly worked for Microsoft, promoting laptops, Xbox products, and even the ill-fated Windows Phone. He is passionate about video games and sports, although either of them causes him to yell at the television. He proudly sports quite a few tattoos, adding one from Arsenal, in honor of the team that makes him scream at the top of his lungs on television.
Hulu’s 10 Best Movies: Here Are The Ones You Can Watch Right Now
How to Watch “Dance Moms: A New Era” Online: Reality TV Show Streaming, Release Date
The Pixel nine Pro and nine Pro XL are touted – this is the Pixel you’d buy
Tom’s Guide is from Future US Inc. , a foreign media organization and a leading virtual publisher. Visit our corporate website.