STREAMING SATURDAY: Hulu Live TV Takes Step Forward and Back

Hulu Live TV recently added 40 Fox affiliates to the 32 previously acquired by the streaming service. While this is supposed to be good news, it’s really a mixed blessing for streaming fans.

The good news is that Hulu recently announced the addition of a number of Fox affiliates to Hulu Live TV. The bad news is that some of these additions are not local Fox affiliates. A number of Hulu Live TV markets will receive Fox’s national feed instead of their local Fox stations. This stinks for anyone who enjoys watching the news and other programming hosted by their local Fox station. These limitations of Hulu’s Live TV are added to the difficulties users continue to encounter while trying to navigate the streaming service’s complicated app.

Here is a list of media markets that we know receive their local Fox affiliate on Hulu Live TV Beta:

New York
Los Angeles
Chicago
Philadelphia
Dallas-Ft. Worth
San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose
Detroit
Minneapolis-St.Paul
Denver
Houston
Washington D.C. (Hagerstown)
Atlanta
Tampa-St. Pete (Sarasota)
Phoenix (Prescott)
Orlando-Daytona Beach-Melbourne
Charlotte
Austin
Gainesville
Grand Rapids-Kalamazoo-Battle Creek
Palm Springs
Columbia-Jefferson City
Biloxi-Gulfport
Bend, OR
Anchorage
Louisville
Columbus-Tupelo-West Point-Houston
Milwaukee
Santa Barbara-Santa Maria-San Luis Obispo
Juneau
Idaho Falls-Pocatello (Jackson)

If your media market is not on this list, you might want to try the free preview before cutting the cord for good!

Here is another equally important issue – What about National Football games? Will Fox be able to air local games in these markets that are stuck streaming the national feed? Or will there be a national game of the week? Or no NFL football at all? All of these are important questions that Hulu must answer and fix if it wants to retain viewers.

I’ve said that Hulu Live TV is an inferior product when I discussed Hulu coming to Fire TV and Fire stick. I’ll say it again now: As live TV streaming goes, Sling TV and DIRECTV NOW both do a better job than Hulu. The only advantage that Hulu offers is its ability to keep all media consumption within one app. Too bad that app is a far cry from providing the optimal live TV streaming experience. Many users feel that it is not user-friendly and rather difficult to navigate. The problem seems to be in the app’s ability or lack thereof to find new shows and movies rather than curated content.

Despite its ongoing improvements, I believe Hulu Live TV is still a ways off from being able to compete with DIRECTV NOW and Sling TV.

About the Author

Jake Buckler
Jake Buckler is a cord-cutter, consumer electronics geek, and Celtic folk music fan. Those qualities, and his writing experience, helped him land a copywriting gig at Signal Group, LLC. He also contributes to The Solid Signal Blog.