While they didn’t disclose numbers, Disney CFO Christine McCarthy on their 3rd Quarter Earnings Call shared that Hulu Live TV “grew more than any digital MVPD product this quarter.” This doesn’t come as a surprise, as at $45 a month, it is now the cheapest bundle that includes locals, regional sports, and cable networks.
It is likely that Sling TV is still the largest vMVPD at 2.47 million subscribers, ahead of Hulu Live TV, who announced in September that they had reached 1 million subscribers, but some have speculated that they have surpassed 2 million subscribers. They continue to build their lead on DIRECTV NOW who has lost 518,000 in the last three quarters, leaving the service with just 1.34 million subscribers. YouTube TV has never disclosed subscribers, but reports place them at 1 million, PlayStation Vue at 800,000, and fuboTV at 300,000.
On the call, Disney CEO Bob Iger said that he feels it’s important to grow their vMVPD business because of it’s unique property of combining linear, off-network, and original programming like The Handmaid’s Tale. Hulu itself has a very important advertising business, which the live business is a small component of, but Iger feels could be a big and growing part of the business.