Hulu, Nexstar Reach Carriage Agreement Covering 122 Local Stations Across United States
Hulu, Nexstar Reach Carriage Agreement Covering 122 Local Stations Across United States
Live TV streaming services are an excellent way for cord-cutters to bridge the gap between the old pay-TV system they knew before, and subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services like Disney+ and HBO Max that have a great variety of movies and TV ready to play at a moment’s notice, but don’t offer any live channels.
Hulu + Live TV is one of the more popular live TV services available, and it’s pretty to see why. After all, Hulu + Live TV customers get subscriptions to Disney+ and ESPN+ free just for signing up. With plans starting at $69.99 per month, that makes Hulu + Live TV one of the best bargains available.
It doesn’t hurt Hulu + Live TV from a value perspective that it continues to add new channels for its customers to watch. Media company and TV station owner Nexstar has announced a new deal with Hulu to bring 122 of its stations to Hulu + Live TV. In addition to local affiliates of MyNetworkTV, the deal will bring Nexstar’s news channel NewsNation to Hulu + Live TV for multiple years.
It’s not immediately clear if the deal covers any new markets for The CW on Hulu + Live TV; Nexstar owns 75% of The CW, and Hulu + Live TV customers in several markets began noticing in February they now had access to their local CW affiliate. There was no announcement from Nexstar or Hulu at the time regarding the expansion of The CW on the service, which stood in stark contrast to the addition of CW affiliates to rival service YouTube TV in March. The release from Nexstar did not indicate how many, if any, CW stations would be added to Hulu + Live TV as part of the deal.
The announcement comes just one week after Hulu + Live TV was able to bring 34 Sinclair-owned ABC affiliates back into its channel lineup. The channels had been absent from Hulu + Live TV since early March, when carriage fee requests that Hulu’s parent company Disney found exorbitant caused the service to drop them. The channels are now available once again, which is especially good news for sports fans who want to see NBA and NHL playoff games on Hulu + Live TV.
The restoration of Sinclair-owned ABC stations to Hulu + Live TV last week meant that the carriage dispute took around six weeks to solve. That’s about how long it took to bring CBS affiliates back to Fubo, following a similar carriage dispute that spanned from January to March. Fans of Nexstar-owned stations now carried by Hulu + Live TV don’t have to worry about a similar dispute for a good while, however; the multi-year broadcasting agreement just struck by the two companies means any such disagreements are a long way off.
Hulu Live TV
Hulu Live TV is a live TV streaming service with more than 70 channels for $82.99/month. Hulu + Live TV base plan includes local channels, 33 of the top 35 cable channels, and regional sports networks (RSNs). Subscribers get free access to Disney+ and ESPN+ at no extra charge.