Published on January 25th, 2018 | by Brad Gibson

Hulu with Live TV tops 500 local affiliates

The subscription service Hulu with Live TV has surpassed having 500 local stations with the addition of 14 new U.S. commercial network affiliates in places like Nashville, Corpus Christi, and Marquette, Michigan.

Hulu now re-transmits 520 local commercial affiliates and offers local broadcasts of all four major broadcast networks – NBC, ABC, CBS, and Fox – to nearly 50 percent of U.S. TV homes.

The service now leads in the race of signing live local commercial stations. YouTube TV is second with 302 stations, DirecTV Now is third with 221, PlayStation Vue ranks fourth with 209, with FuboTV in fifth with 147, according to an updated list of affiliates compiled by streambuzz.net.

Hulu is bundling the limited commercial version of its popular SVOD service with a package of more than 50 live streamed cable and broadcast networks

Hulu hasn’t disclosed how many subscribers it has for its live streaming service, but it is reported the number is around 450,000. Analysts estimate YouTube TV has some 300,000 subscribers. Sling TV – which has opted for not adding local affiliates in the majority of the U.S. to keep subscriber rates low – is estimated by analysts to have more than 2 million customers.

Hulu with Live TV launched in May of 2016 and is jointly owned by Fox, Disney/ABC, Comcast/NBCUniversal and Time Warner. It currently airs 57 channels, not including local commercial network affiliates, for $40 a month.

Hulu has been viewable on Apple TV since June of 2010 and the services app – which airs both Hulu and Hulu with Live TV – is available through the AppStore.

Tags: Apple, apple tv, hulu

About the Author

Brad Gibson Brad is co-founder and editor-in-chief of BESTAppleTV.com. He has been a technology reporter since the late 1980s having previously worked for MacUser, MacFormat, and iCreate magazines, as well as MacNN.com, MacObserver.com, MacCentral.com, MacMinute.com, and Macworld.com. He hosted and produced the MacFormat This Week podcast for three years. He was also a reporter, editor, and producer for the AOL, the BBC, Associated Press, and United Press International.