Good news for those of you who subscribe to Hulu with Live TV. Hulu just launched a live TV guide, which should make it a lot easier to channel surf.
In a blog post, Hulu's VP of Product Richard Irving acknowledged that subscribers of the $39.99 monthly live TV service have complained that it's hard to see what's on a different channel and flip between two channels they are watching simultaneously. This new guide aims to remedy those issues.
The streaming company has been testing the guide on the web since the fall and Irving said feedback has been "resoundingly positive." Now, it's bringing "an even more robust dynamic guide" to several "living room devices" including the Xbox One, Apple TV (4th generation and higher), Amazon Fire TV (1st and 2nd generations), and Nintendo Switch devices. Support for more devices is coming "soon."
The next time you start up Hulu on one of these devices "there will be a lightning bolt icon to the right of the home icon that takes you directly to live playback on your most recently watched channel," Irving explained. Accessible whenever you're watching live TV programming, the guide will show what's on, what's coming up next, and let you switch to a different channel. The "Recent Channels" section shows the last 10 you watched while "All Channels" shows everything. You can also sort All Channels to make it easy to find your favorites.
"With the new guide, you can control whether you watch now, browse or record for later in just a few simple clicks," Irving wrote.
Hulu with Live TV earned an "excellent" rating in PCMag's review and our coveted Editors' Choice award. We praised its "solid channel selection" and cloud-based DVR but griped that it didn't offer a conventional program guide for browsing what's on. Fortunately, Hulu listened to that critique.
Meanwhile, Spotify subscribers can still take advantage of the company's Premium subscription plan that includes Hulu for $12.99 a month. Spotify Premium normally costs $9.99 a month and Hulu's Limited Commercials plan is typically $7.99 a month, so this new bundle option is $4.99 a month cheaper than subscribing to both separately. The deal expires tomorrow, though, so act fast.