Ahead of Thursday night’s kickoff to the NFL season, streaming bundle Hulu + Live TV is offering a $20 discount for three months of service for new and select returning subscribers.
The discount runs through just before midnight on October 5. It gives subscribers $20 off for three months on their bill for the Disney-run pay-TV service. Hulu + Live TV offers more than 75 live channels as well as sibling streaming outlets Disney+ and ESPN+, which were recently added at no extra cost for Hulu’s live TV subscribers.
Hulu + Live TV ended the most recent quarter with 4 million subscribers. It has hovered around the 4 million mark and dipped by about 100,000 in the most recent quarter. Including its large on-demand subscriber base, Hulu has a total of 46.2 million paying customers.
The NFL season will begin Thursday night and all indications point toward continued stellar ratings for the league. This year marks the start of a new Thursday night rights deal with Amazon’s Prime Video, ushering in a decade when more and more games will be streamed.
Apart from mainstream offerings like the NFL and other major sports, Hulu + Live TV has hit impasses with a few sports providers. Regional sports networks, which carry Major League Baseball, NBA and NHL teams, have been at odds with many streaming pay-TV providers in recent years.
The live bundle, which has become one of the top pay-TV providers, is a key reason why Disney is likely to look to lock up financial control of Hulu in 2024. Comcast, which was a longtime partner in the service when it operated as a joint venture, still retains a financial stake in the streaming entity.