Disney is Looking Into Selling Smaller & Cheaper Live TV Bundles With Hulu

Yesterday at the Recode’s Code Media conference Disney’s Direct-to-Consumer Chairman Kevin Mayer open up about plans for Hulu’s live TV service. After announcing that Hulu’s live TV service had to raise its price to be profitable he went on to talk about selling smaller and cheaper bundles. When asked about Hulu offering smaller, skinny live TV bundles Mr. Mayer said “It could be, we actually haven’t made any decisions. We’re just now starting that exploration.” But offering a smaller bundle would not be easy as Disney has “certain obligations with our channel partners, we’ll have to work through if we were going to do that.”

The problem Hulu is facing here is the fact that most channel owners force services to bundle their channels together. For example, Disney makes having ESPN part of a bundle that includes the Disney Channel and Freeform. If you want ESPN you need to offer other Disney channels in the same bundle. This drives up the cost of the bundle and Disney is not the only company that does this.

Mr. Mayer was quick to add that they have not made any decision on smaller packages at this time.

As live TV packages become more and more expensive, more cord cutters have been looking for cheaper options. Sling TV, Philo, Vidgo, and Frndly are all now offering packages under $30 with smaller channel lineups. Now it seems that Hulu may want to compete in this space.

You can watch the full interview here: (You can find him talking about smaller Hulu bundles at around the 28:50 mark.)

What do you think of what Mr. Mayer said? Leave us a comment and let us know.

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