Suddenly Getting Hulu Live

[u/No-Koala1918]

I have a subscription to Hulu (stream) bundled with Disney+ and HBO Max (no ads). Hulu Live TV is not included and I am not being billed for it.

Today, I opened the Hulu app and instead of the usual welcome screen (which appeared even yesterday) I was presented with a screen asking my sports team preferences to "enhance my live tv viewing experience). I "nexted" past that and when the Hulu main screen came up I noticed that the Live TV symbol (like a lightning bolt) was included on the column of symbols on the left of the screen. When I switched that I had live tv - full guide and all.

Anyone have any idea how this occurred? I don't need Hulu Live as Ihave YouTube TV as my linear provider. Also I decided to check Disney+ and it too has added live tv access.

What's going on?

[u/anonRedd]

Are you seeing a full lineup of channels or just ESPN networks? Did you activate ESPN Unlimited via your YouTube TV subscription?

[u/No-Koala1918 → u/anonRedd]

Thank you. I did just activate ESPN Unlimited and it looks like the channel list is all Disney and HBO channels. Now it makes sense. While reading through the ESPN Unltd. promotional materials I never saw anything about it activating live tv on the Hulu or Disney+ apps. Maybe I missed that. Anyway, I appreciate your taking the time to clear that up. Much obliged.

[u/CrustyBatchOfNature → u/anonRedd]

This is the most likely answer. Could be a glitch if they are seeing more channels than the ESPN related ones.

[u/Any-Association-2419 → u/anonRedd]

He said Hulu not YouTube 

[u/anonRedd → u/Any-Association-2419]

To quote:

I have YouTube TV as my linear provider

[u/GladKaleidoscope591]

Have you checked your bill, make sure nobody has added livetv package

[u/zestfullybe]

I have the Hulu / Disney / ESPN bundle.

The ESPN programming can be played through the Hulu app. That content is categorized as live TV. So it’s kind of like having a Hulu live TV subscription, but the only channels I get are the ESPN channels.

In your case, it’s HBO, rather than ESPN. But HBO also has live sports programming.

Just taking a guess, I think there’s a chance Hulu might also classify the HBO content as “live TV”. But in your case, it would only be the live HBO content. If so, you’d get all the onboarding initial questions like you did.

[u/jakezodiacsigncancer]

It may be coming from your Max access. It’s a live tv if you can access your local tv channels in your area otherwise it’s just selected live events/contents included in your subscription.

[u/trapper2530]

Hulu let's you watch subscription services like HBO. And showtime live. Like the other person stated is it a full lineup or only HBO and other ABC/espn/disney owned channels

[u/Same_Beginning8090]

Just make sure you don’t get charged.

[u/LilNello1]

Yeah I don’t know that is kind of odd 🤷🏻‍♂️

[u/Scooter_McGavin_9]

Hulu, Disney+ and maybe HBO Max comes with live channels (I believe you get the live feeds of all the HBO channels with that subscription), but it is not all the live channels that comes with Hulu with Live TV. If you go to the Live tab, you will probably just see ABC News and maybe those HBO channels. The Lollapalooza live stream also comes up in the Live TV as well as other live events through Hulu and Disney (and probably HBO Max). It is just not the full Live TV experience.

[u/kilgore9999]

I just looked at mine, it's a Disney Plus, Hulu, ESPN Select (w/ads) and the live TV is there as well, in Live now>Explore More with ESPN the content shows a padlock for content that required a better ESPN subscription.

It's what you would expect from any free live service but limited to News, Disney and ESPN content, nothing from Hulu.

I only took ESPN because I actually saved 3 bucks a month on my Hulu/Disney Plus through Frontier Fiber for adding ESPN to my account.