Earlier today, Hulu Live TV rolled out a brand new 14-Day Live Guide, which also included new navigation that lets you quickly switch between All Channels, Favorites, Recents, and categories like Sports. The new guide adds a quick view panel, easier filtering, and startover icons.
But, what it also does is solve one of the biggest frustrations for sports fans — not knowing whether a game will be blacked out before it airs. Sports blackouts generally occur when a team’s game is on a national TV network like ESPN, NFL Network, NBA TV, or NHL Network at the same time it airs on your local affiliate or RSN. If your Live TV Streaming Service doesn’t carry the local RSN, it’s sometimes confusing to streamers as to why they won’t get the game on the national channel.
Now in the Live Guide, Hulu will include an indicator if a game in blacked out in your city. Additionally, when you go to the details of a game — it will inform you that the game won’t be available on the service. NFL fans this preseason have also faced this where some local affiliates have blacked out games because they don’t have streaming rights to the telecasts.
While other services — like PlayStation Vue and YouTube TV also indicate sports blackouts, you usually won’t find out until the day of the game. With the new feature though, now you can decide to head to a friends or the nearest sports bar if the game is blacked out in your area.