Hulu with Live TV to Increase Monthly Price by 22%
Hulu with Live TV will be increasing its monthly price to $54.99 from its current $45 per month amount.
The price hike will go into effect December 18, 2019, for all customers and will show on subscribers’ next bill.
This is Hulu’s second price increase for its Live TV product this year. It hiked the Live TV price from $40 to $45 in January 2019.
Which is an illustration of what is likely to be normal operating procedure for these “skinny bundle” live TV alternatives to cable and satellite TV.
It was good while we had lower-cost live-TV options, but economic reality is beginning to hit these cable/satellite alternatives.
Since they became somewhat mainstream a few years ago, pricing for most of these live streaming entertainment products has continued to rise.
It wasn’t uncommon to find a live streaming service that provided most, if not all, of the cable channels you wanted for around $30 per month. A significant savings over the traditional cable or satellite monthly bill.
Now $50 per month is more the norm for these live TV streaming options, narrowing the pricing gap.
And recently, one of the better live streaming options at least as far as I was concerned, PlayStation Vue announced it would be ending its service January 30, 2020.
Illustrating that the business model and pricing structure, at least for PlayStation Vue, just wasn’t sustainable.
During a conference last year, Hulu CEO Randy Freer said, “We all have to ultimately run a business that can be profitable.”
And, to keep the Hulu with Live TV product profitable, the price has to go up…significantly.
Which means we’ll likely see the other live streaming TV providers inch their monthly pricing more toward that $50-$60 per month mark, too.
Ever closer to the lower end of the cable and satellite pricing levels.
Which may not be such a bad thing. If cable and satellite providers see that consumers may be more comfortable with a $60-$70 per month price and move that way to keep subscribers from jumping to the streaming options, we all may win.
Only time will tell.
If you’re a DirecTV customer enticed by the streaming options to lower your bill, be sure to check out our strategies to keep your DirecTV costs low. Low enough that considering the streaming services’ price increases, you just might come out ahead sticking with DirecTV!
Cable subscribers likely will have a tougher go of it, unfortunately.
But, considering the pay/streaming TV landscape, that may be changing.
Let’s just hope that change is for the better and not the worse.
