Didn’t a lot of us go to streaming to get away from paying the same prices we did for cable? At this point it’s a wonder that anyone is thinking that LiveTV is that great of an idea since Hulu is now raising their prices $10 for LiveTV as of December 18th. That might not seem like a lot for some people but for those that went to streaming to try and get away from cable it’s becoming way too similar since the price hike is becoming something of an issue. Some people aren’t bound to complain much since they want to be able to watch the news, games, and other TV programs without having to wait for them, but that price, yikes. The whole idea of going to streaming for some people was to get away from the high cable prices, be able to ditch the cable altogether, and even focus on what they want to watch. But the idea of paying out as much as a regular cable service seems kind of ridiculous since it doesn’t seem like a big step forward. As Robin Zlotnick of Distractify states though this isn’t the first time that Hulu has raised their prices since they went from $40 to $49.99 back in January. One might think that this would cause the number of subscribers to dwindle noticeably, but so far that doesn’t seem to have happened.
When it comes to the streaming wars it’s still kind of hard to see why anyone picks Hulu over Netflix since the latter has been a streaming giant since around 2007 when it began to focus more on streaming and less on DVD’s being sent through the mail. Remember those? Many people were extremely excited to see their next delivery as they ripped open the red package to play the next movie they’d ordered. Plus there were no late fees and as always, Netflix has been commercial free ever since it started. Whether it will ever go against that is hard to say, but if you want to watch Hulu without commercial then you need to pay a little more, which almost seems like a rough deal since it means you’re having to shell out for the privilege of not having anything come between you and your favorite show or movie. With Netflix you might pay a bit more to stream HD and do so on more than one screen, but the pay increase has been pretty gradual and hasn’t jumped so much that a person might feel their eyes widen as with Hulu. A lot of people still like Hulu as they believe that it offers them more options than Netflix, as LiveTV is still a big draw, even though it’s pretty much like the cable that many people got rid of in favor of streaming. Eric Griffith of PC Mag has more on this subject.
Quite simply Hulu is raising its prices due to the services it offers and as a result it’s likely that they might continue rising as some think since the idea of using LiveTV is something that a lot of people still don’t want to do without. Allison Prang and Joe Flint of The Wall Street Journal have more to say on this matter. When you think about it Netflix offers a lot more for the money when it comes to movies, documentaries, TV series, and the like, but they tend to feel a little more canned than Hulu LiveTV, which is more of the normal fare that people are used to. The one downside of LiveTV as has already been explained though is the cost and how it’s bound to keep increasing as time goes on. So far the cost hasn’t been a massive issue as of yet though one has to wonder if it’s going to become one in the future. People love Netflix because there are no commercials no matter which plan you sign up for, there’s no need for LiveTV, and it’s a little less complicated to a lot of folks. Hulu, which is now able to be purchased as part of a bundle with Disney+ and ESPN, is still a very popular service but at the same time it still doesn’t have quite the same effect as Netflix for a few different reasons.
At this point it’s not too hard to remember when the battle between dish and cable was such a big deal, but it’s easy to think that we won’t be going back to that anytime soon since streaming is the thing now and LiveTV almost seems like a thing of the past that’s somehow being kept relevant at this time. If prices keep going up though one has to wonder just how it will stay relevant when it’s easier to get updates on YouTube for next to nothing rather than spend the money to get the luxury of having it all right now.
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