YouTube-TV and Hulu Live - two new choices for Cord Cutting

As I expressed back in my post on Cord Cutting back in January - the number of choices you will have in terms of streaming live TV would expand.  And that is coming to fruition.

 Since that post two new players have entered the fray.  YouTube announced their YouTube-TV offering and Hulu announced Hulu-Live.

 YouTube TV offers 40+ channels, 6 accounts unlimited DVR and support across PCs, iOS and Android devices as well as Apple AirPlay and Chromecast.  YouTube TV will also be supported on Android TV devices from Sony, Sharp, nVidia & Razer.  The service is $35 and you have some add-on choices like Showtime.

 When you compare it to DirecTV Now for example - there are fewer channels - but you can have 6 folks streaming simultaneously vs just 2 for DirecTV.  You also have unlimited DVR - which DirecTV Now just doesn't offer.  

Hulu Live offers 60+ channels including a lot of sports channels for $40 / month as well as add-ons like HBO, Cinemax and Showtime.  The base subscription provides 50hrs of DVR capability (you can expand to 200hrs for more $) but like DirecTV Now only allows 2 simultaneous users.  Like YouTube TV you can stream to PCs along with iOS and Android devices - but you also stream to xBox, 4th Gen AppleTV and Amazon's FireTV.  they also show future support by Roku and Samsung.

 One note with Hulu TV is that based on your locale you may only have onDemand access to the Big 3 (ABC, CBS, NBC) vs true local channel coverage.

 One thing to note here for both offerings is the native TV / Streamer app support.  From the initial offering descriptions there certainly appears to be a split occurring.  

 For example you could certainly stream YouTube TV to a Samsung TV - but you would need to do it via Chromecast or AirPlay.  Similarly you can stream Hulu Live to a SonyTV but might need an AppleTV or FireTV device to do it.  That may change in the coming months - but for now be sure to do some due diligence to meet your use cases otherwise you'll need to buy additional hardware to make it work..

 Bottom line is we're seeing more and more streaming services come to market. I even read a recent article that stated that DirecTV will be moving away from Satellite in the next few years and only stream.  

 I expect that by 2020 - a huge portion of all TV will be delivered via streaming and with LTE 5 and 5GB+ WiFi available the choice will be more about features like simultaneous streams and cloud DVR than price.  







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