Weekly Rewind
Hulu Live TV launches: Nearly one year after Hulu revealed plans to sell a bundle of TV channels, it’s finally here, though Hulu is calling it a paid public beta for now. The service costs $40 per month for more than 50 channels from seven major networks, including ESPN channels from The Walt Disney Company, regional sports from Fox and Comcast, the big three cable news networks, and prime-time content from the major broadcast networks. The package also includes Hulu’s ad-supported on-demand service, which costs $8 per month by itself.
The channel lineup looks solid–though it’s missing AMC, Viacom, and Discovery networks–and the inclusion of Hulu on-demand could help this feel like more of a complete TV package. But there are a couple of gotchas related to DVR storage, ad-skipping, and simultaneous streams. I’ll have some impressions next week, but in the meantime you can check out my writeup on TechHive for all the basic details.
AirTV review: Let’s make this a TechHive hattrick, shall we? I recently reviewed the AirTV Player, a streaming box that’s optimized for watching Sling TV, along with its optional USB tuner that integrates live over-the-air channels.
The results were not so great. Sling’s guide is still too cumbersome for figuring out what’s on, especially with broadcast channels in the mix, and there’s no DVR service for streaming channels or over-the-air ones. It also runs an outdated version of Android TV, and given AirTV’s past foibles–for months, the product lacked the antenna integration that was demonstrated at a trade show in January–I’m not confident about timely future updates. The product has potential, but it’s best avoided for now.
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