Staff rating

4.0

Customer rating

4.5

(52)

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Staff rating

2.2

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Staff rating

4.0

Hulu + Live TV offers a great on-demand library and original content

Hulu + Live TV offers an impressive streaming experience for live television. With a competitive price point, Hulu + Live TV provides a wealth of great features such as unlimited DVR storage for 9 months, access to an extensive on-demand library, and the ability to watch on multiple devices simultaneously.

What we like

Huge streaming library
Access to Disney+ and ESPN+
Exceptional original content

What we dislike

Ad-free costs more

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Staff rating

2.2

A hard right on live streaming news

Vidgo costs nearly as much as the top streaming services we reviewed, but it’s harder to use and missing a lot of top channels. It’s the best way to watch One America News plus original programming from Bill O’Reilly, though, and one of the best ways to catch college sports.

What we like

Strong lineup of right-wing news
Great college sports coverage
Access to both Hallmark and Lifetime movies

What we dislike

Missing popular channels and a robust on-demand library
No watch history
Nearly unusable interface

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Savings tip: Vidgo often has

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for first-time customers. Call to ask a rep about current deals and discounts.

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Content

4.0

Great on-demand experience, plus most local networks and dozens of channels

With Hulu, you'll always have something to watch. In our review, we found that Hulu + Live TV shines when it comes to content. (1) You get access to most of your local channels and dozens of live TV options from popular cable networks. You also get access to the full on-demand libraries of Hulu, Disney+, and ESPN+. It’s a truly massive offering.

Local: 3/5
Hulu + Live TV gives you access to about half of the local channels you would get from a digital antenna or traditional TV provider, but those channels are the most popular of the standard local options. You get ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, and The CW in most markets, for instance, but not PBS, Antenna TV, Estrella TV, or Univision. There are probably better live TV options for most Spanish speakers, but Hulu + Live TV isn’t bad if you just want your local news, sports, and primetime favorites in English. Hulu + Live TV is a nationwide service, but there are some geographic differences in the lineup. Find channels available in your area.

Sports: 3/5
Hulu + Live TV is pretty good in its sports offerings. There’s no NBA TV or MLB coverage, but you do get ESPN, TNT, Fox Sports 1, and the Golf Channel, plus local channels (which often show big national games). There’s no way to get NFL SUNDAY TICKET (now available only from YouTube TV), and you’ll miss out on all the regional sports networks you could get with DIRECTV STREAM or many traditional cable TV providers.

More Resources:

How to watch NFL Games

How to watch NBA Games

How to watch NHL Games

How to watch MLB Games

Family and education: 4/5
If you have kiddos in the house, Hulu + Live TV should have plenty of shows and channels to keep them entertained. You get three Disney channels, two Nickelodeon channels, and Universal Kids channel. There's no PBS, but you get all the other most popular kids' channels.

News and politics: 3/5
You get all your news heavy-hitters with Hulu + Live TV, including local news, national news from several sources, and financial news. You can also add Español Add-on for news, weather, and sports in Spanish at a cost of about $5 per month.

Entertainment and lifestyle: 4.5/5
You get about half of America’s Top 100 channels to watch live with Hulu + Live TV, and Hulu earns extra points for having a stellar on-demand library on top of its live TV offering. This includes many original titles from Hulu with hits like Only Murders in the Building, The Bear, American Horror Story, Reservation Dogs, and more.

That said, you’ll have to get the Entertainment add-on ($8 per month) for Discovery Channels, MTV Classic, Crime+Investigation, and BET Her. You can also get HBO MAX, CINEMAX, SHOWTIME, and STARZ, but additional pricing of between $9 to $15 each applies every month.

Local news, sports, and entertainment channels vary based on your location. Check out

Hulu + Live TV channel offerings

in your area.

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Content

2.5

The only live TV streaming app with OAN and Bill O’Reilly originals

If Vidgo carries your teams and you resonate with its news offerings, it’s a decent alternative to some of the cable and satellite TV services we reviewed. But for most cord cutters, we can’t recommend Vidgo. Choosing a different streaming service would give you most of the right-wing news you crave and more pro sports.

Local: 1.5/5
Vidgo offers local FOX and ABC channels in some markets (including their respective news coverage) but doesn’t carry NBC, CBS, or PBS. That means missing out on local news and a lot of primetime goodies. We like that there are at least some local channels (you don’t get any with Philo, for instance), but there’s a lot of room for improvement.

Sports: 3/5
Vidgo is so-so when it comes to professional sports, offering MLB Network and NFL Network, but no NBA TV and none of the local channels that host the biggest national games and matches. There’s also a gap when it comes to regional sports networks for pro teams, and there’s no access to TNT. It offers nearly a dozen channels just for college sports, though, plus the standard ESPN, NHL Network, and Fox Sports 1 and 2. It goes above and beyond with sports in Spanish, offering Telemundo, Estrella, Univision, and UniMas.

More Resources:

How to watch NFL Games

How to watch NBA Games

How to watch NHL Games

How to watch MLB Games

Family and education: 2.5/5
Vidgo leaves something to be desired when it comes to family viewing. We like that it offers Science, Discovery, four Nickelodeon channels, and three Disney channels in its Ultimate package, but missing local channels and all their great family content is a bummer. There’s no PBS, either, but you will find the Curiosity channel (without add-on pricing) which is rare among other streaming services, plus BYUtv and Great American Family.

News and politics: 2/5
Vidgo is the only live TV service we tested that still offers OAN (One America News), and it’s the home of two new shows from conservative commentator Bill O’Reilly: Shock and Awe and No Spin News. It also features Fox News, Newsmax, and News Nation channels, and the listener-supported channel Vice, but it’s missing CBS, NBC, MSNBC, CNN, and BBC America. Top competitors YouTube TV, Hulu + Live TV, and DIRECTV STREAM offer a wider range of options, so the focus on right-leaning options is what makes Vidgo stand out.

Entertainment and lifestyle: 2.5/5
We like that Vidgo offers both Lifetime and Hallmark channels, but it’s missing a lot of the most popular entertainment channels out there. There’s no Showtime or HBO (and no add-ons), no Ion Mystery, no Reelz, and no Grit. You will find MTV, CMT, and BET, though. If there’s a particular channel you’re interested in, we recommend checking the Vidgo channel guide before making a decision, because there are no free trials.

Local news, sports, and entertainment channels vary based on your location. Check out

Vidgo channel offerings

in your area.

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Value

4.0

Decent channel lineup and an exceptional streaming library

Hulu + Live TV has a lot to offer, including a huge library of on-demand content from the Classic Hulu service plus dozens of channels featuring news, entertainment, sports, and more. You can’t get PBS or Univision, but it feels like a true replacement for cable TV.

Hulu + Live TV is the one of the most expensive live TV streaming services we reviewed at the starting tier, but just by a few dollars. The high cost starts to make sense when you realize it’s a bundle price. In addition to live TV, you get access to Hulu’s on-demand library ($7.99 per month with ads), Disney+ ($7.99 per month), and ESPN+ ($9.99 per month). That means you get Hulu originals, tons of live sports and events, and thousands of shows and movies.

Get the best value by speaking directly with a sales rep or check your address at

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Value

3.0

A subpar live TV streaming experience, but you’ll pay premium prices

Vidgo offers four package options, and they’re not cheap. The cheapest English-language package starts at about the same price as the top live TV streaming services we reviewed. Other packages cost even more.

Rather than try to be everything for everyone, it’s pretty clear Vidgo is going for two main audiences: people who love right-wing news and analysis, and people who love college sports. You’ll also find some heart-warming movies, shows for kids, and music videos, but the channel lineup makes it clear producers care more about starting lineups than love notes or bleeding hearts.

It’s worth noting that Vidgo also has a subscription focused on Spanish-language TV, and we like that it costs $20 less than the cheapest English-language subscription.

Get the best value by speaking directly with a sales rep or check your address at

Vidgo's website.

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Features and usability

4.0

Sleek interface with great custom recommendations

When you first sign into Hulu, you'll be welcomed by a sleek, intuitive interface. You can set up multiple profiles, so each family member can keep their own to-watch list and customized recommendations.

Hulu + Live TV has most of the features you’d expect from a live streaming TV service, including unlimited DVR for nine months and the ability to stop and rewind live TV. We loved all the on-demand options, too.

If you sign up for Hulu, we highly recommend paying more for the ad-free version. Otherwise, you'll be sitting through ads that can get repetitive really quckly.

Ability to watch: Good

Hulu + Live TV feels like it was designed for on-demand streaming rather than live TV watching. You can watch in 1080p on traditional TVs, mobile devices, browsers, or streaming sticks. In our tests, it worked well on some browsers, but we had minor issues with either casting or resizing with the Amazon Firestick, iOS phone, and both Safari and Chrome browsers.

It is possible to get to the channel guide for a standard surfing experience, but it took us a few minutes to find it in the mobile app. Finding channels to surf took even longer on the streaming devices and smart TVs we tested. Once we got set up on a particular device and got used to the interface, though, the experience felt pretty standard.

Ability to record: Great

We like that Hulu + Live TV’s DVR is unlimited and saves recordings for up to nine months. You can record ongoing shows or future shows through the channel guide, or record entire programs. You can watch offline, which is cool, and you can set recordings or download certain episodes for offline viewing from any device with the app. However, you can’t DVR anything from premium channels or the on-demand library, and you can’t skip certain promotions even if you pay for the highest possible package.

Ability to find: Great

Within the Hulu interface, it's easy to find whatever you want to watch and browse recommnedations. The search tools are easy to find and work well, and you have choice of different views. If you add a show to "My Stuff," it's really easy to keep everything organized in one place.

Hulu has some of the best customized recommendations we've experienced with a streaming service. It can get really niche, so you can explore similar movies to shows to ones you already love. We really like the Hulu recommendation engine at any service level, and we like that you can easily get to the next episode on a show you’re watching (even if you’ve watched the whole series before).

In our tests, the on-demand experience was completely seamless. You can browse by format (TV, Movies, Sports) or search for a specific show or channel. We also liked the Hubs, which are curated collections based around a theme.

Ability to share: Fine

Hulu has cracked down on password sharing among multiple households, and it shows. It’s easy to create profiles for up to six users, but you get only two simultaneous streams with the standard package. You can pay more for unlimited screens, but you may not be able to watch away from home.

In our testing, we ran into a little trouble trying to watch in different locations. If you switch to a new or different device, you'll probably have to sign in again and do a two-factor verification.

If you are just sharing with family, it’s easy to designate profiles for kids so they have access to only kids shows. That’s the only parental control option available, and we like that it’s set at the account level instead of the device level.

Features and usability

1.0

The worst cloud DVR we tested, no profiles, and no watch history

We wish we had a lot of nice things to say about Vidgo’s features, but we only found one: you can stream on at least four devices at a time with one account, with no restrictions around IP addresses or logged-in devices. Things go downhill from there.

Ability to watch: Bad
We started our testing on an iPhone and found out we couldn’t rewind live TV at all, couldn’t fast forward content of any kind, and couldn’t even load a lot of the on-demand content. The problems persisted when we moved our testing to a Safari browser. Watching on a PC or Chrome browser was easier, and the Android app worked well overall. But we ran into confusing quirks and bugs on every device.

Things got a little easier when we tried Vidgo on streaming devices, but the interface was clunky and boxy. The bare bones functionality of watching TV live is there, but it takes several clicks to watch anything at all, and there are multiple weird pop-up boxes throughout the experience.

We found several college sports channels, but our testers noticed low-quality feeds on some games. The load times for games felt faster than with DIRECTV STREAM, the reigning RSN provider in live TV streaming, but we couldn’t get on-demand movies to load at all on several of the devices we tested.

You can pause live TV, but it’s basically just a mute button because pressing “play” takes you right back to the live version. You can rewind live TV, but only back as far as you’ve been watching live. There’s no way to skip commercials, even if you wait for a lag of several minutes. If you’re using a PC, you can speed up or slow down the show, but the highly unusual feature is glitchy and feels unnecessary.

You can’t fast-forward easily with on-demand shows and movies either, though some devices let you drag a play bar back and forth. It is possible to skip ahead when watching from the on-demand library, but only if you’re using Edge or Chrome browsers or relying on the capabilities of your streaming device (such as an Apple TV).

It doesn’t get much better when it comes to the on-demand library. You can “Favorite” channels and sort by Favorites in the channel guide, but that doesn’t have any impact on your home screen. Instead, you get blasted with content Vidgo considers “Top Shelf,” meaning mostly Fox News.

Watching from the on-demand library was beyond frustrating. We were eventually able to watch on-demand movies on a MacBook, but only with Chrome and Firefox browsers. Other times, we couldn’t get anything to load at all. We understand that not everything is set up to work well with Safari, but Vidgo’s own documentation encourages using the browser. Not a good look.

Ability to record: Bad
Vidgo offers cloud DVR, but it’s terrible. For starters, the maximum possible storage is just 20 hours, which never expire but that you’ll use up in a hurry. Top streaming competitors offer unlimited cloud DVR and include it in the package price, so Vidgo is clearly in the minor leagues here. Maybe even the little leagues.

Using the DVR is a challenge, too. First, it’s hard to get anything to record. You can’t start a recording in the middle of a program, and most of the time the shows we had selected for DVR weren’t actually recorded. Over several days of testing, none of our recordings showed up in the mobile app.

We finally found some (but not all) of our intended recordings using a Chrome browser, but there was no easy way to skip commercials.

From the home screen, you can (allegedly) set recordings by clicking on a show’s image card. You’ll probably have to click several times, though, and it may never work.

Ability to find: Bad
Things get even worse with the channel guide. You first have to click on the bright red “i” button on every channel to get to the description, and then look for the DVR button to the right. That “i” button looks like an exclamation point at first glance, so we thought it was a warning rather than a functional button.

For better or worse, channel surfing is also a no-go. There is a mini player, but if you’re watching on it, there’s no way to get back to the guide. If you pause a show and wait too long to get back on, there’s a good chance you’ll lose your place entirely and be kicked back to the (un-customizable) home screen.

Ability to share: Fine
There are no profiles, no parental controls, no 4K, no surround sound, and no other perks we could find. We were able to get around the three-device limit and watch in multiple locations, though, which earned the provider a little extra credit. Unfortunately, we're pretty sure that's a bug and not a feature.

Customer experience

4.0

Easy purchase experience and lots of add-on options

It's really easy to purchase Hulu, manage your subscription, and add-on additional features. There’s no free trial for the live TV package with Hulu, but we like that the service is easy to upgrade, downgrade, or cancel. You can do it all online, and your access to content will continue through the end of the time period you’ve already paid for. That's great customer service.

You can choose from several Hulu options to find one that meets your needs and budget:

Ad-Supported Hulu: Starts at $7.99 a month or $79.99 a year.
Ad-free Hulu: $17.99 a month.
Hulu with Ads + Live TV, Disney+ (with ads) and ESPN+ (with ads): $76.99 a month.
Hulu with No Ads + Live TV, Disney+ (no ads) and ESPN+ (with ads): $89.99 a month.
Hulu with Ads + Live TV, Disney+ (no ads) + ESPN+ (with ads): $81.99 a month.
Live TV Only: $75.99 a month.

We like that there are many options for Hulu plans, so you can find one that meets your needs. We like that there are no contracts or hidden fees to worry about. It’s a refreshing change from what you’ll find with most classic TV providers.

Visit Hulu + Live TV's website

or call for more information on contracts and money-back guarantees.

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Customer experience

2.5

Plenty of room to improve

We were surprised to learn that Vidgo launched in 2018 because it still feels very beta. The interface and website are clunky and the packages and offerings change often. That said, we had to call in to customer service a few times and had relatively positive experiences. They even let us cancel the service without too much hassle, but it was a little strange. Rather than disabling our user profile, they just removed our credit card info.

Vidgo earned some of our lowest star rankings among both traditional TV and streaming providers, but it’s not hopeless! A new executive team was brought on toward the end of 2022, and we look forward to seeing what’s on deck. (1)

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or call for more information on contracts and money-back guarantees.

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Hulu + Live TV

4.4

(52)

5 Star

58%

4 Star

33%

3 Star

2 Star

1 Star

Steven from Muskegon, MI

Hulu + Live TV Customer for 1+ years

Reviewed on: 8/17/2022

A wonderful experience and fulfills all my desires to watch movies that I love

Christopherfrom Euless, TX

Hulu + Live TV Customer for 1+ years

Reviewed on: 8/5/2022

Better than Dish or cable, overall. But packages are deceiving, because there is no true "no ads" tv. Also, price increases at least twice a year.

Robert from Lueders , TX

Hulu + Live TV Customer for 1+ years

Reviewed on: 7/4/2022

The service goes as far as the service goes it's a pretty good service it's a little pricey but the DVR is good I get all the channels I like and the only thing I can approve improve it would be to lower the price

Djfrom Lincoln , NE

Hulu + Live TV Customer for 8+ years