FuboTV vs Hulu + Live TV: Full Comparison and Pros & Cons for Each

The growing number of former cable subscribers cutting the cord continues to rise across the nation well into the 2020s. With this ever-increasing number of cord-cutters comes an ever-increasing number of streaming television services to choose from. Two of the most popular examples? Fubo vs Hulu + Live TV.

FuboTV and Hulu are a couple of the industry’s most favored options in the streaming television space today. But which one is better? And which one should you go with? Let’s make a full comparison below, complete with the pros and cons for each streaming television service.

FuboTV vs Hulu + Live TV: Side-by-Side Comparison

5 Must-Know Facts about Streaming Television

1. There’s an ever-increasing number of streaming services on the market today. Some experts estimate the total number across film, television, music, and beyond to be well into the triple digits. All of these services together are expected to be valued at more than $330 billion by 2030.
2. At this point, you’d be hard-pressed to find a friend or family member that doesn’t have access to a video streaming service. By the end of 2022, it was estimated that more than 85% of all Americans had at least one. Additionally, 60% of all Americans subscribe to at least one music streaming service.
3. If you were to add up all the films and television shows watched in America alone in 2021, you’d have more than 15 million years of runtime in all. Worldwide, more than three billion people stream films or television shows regularly. The numbers are truly staggering, and they only continue to rise with each passing year.
4. Today, less than 65% of Americans still subscribe to traditional cable television. Comparing this to the 85% of Americans with a video streaming service subscription, it’s clear to see that streaming has officially surpassed cable. (No wonder FuboTV vs Hulu + Live TV are competing for subscribers!)
5. The average cable TV plan costs anywhere from $50 to $250 a month, with a majority of the most sizable plans falling closer to the triple-digit range than double digits. Compare this to the average amount of money the typical American spends on streaming services, which is just $50. Not only is streaming more convenient for many, but it also offers a much-needed monthly discount, too.

FuboTV vs Hulu + Live TV: What’s the Difference?

With these basic specs out of the way, let’s dive a little deeper into what really sets Fubo vs Hulu + Live TV apart. How do their prices compare? What about their number of streaming titles? Or their available bundles? These key differences play a major role in determining which streaming television provider is truly best.

Price Per Month

Firstly, there’s the difference in price per month between FuboTV and Hulu + Live TV. FuboTV starts at $74.99 for its most basic tier, then jumps up to $84.99 for its middle tier and $94.99 for its top-of-the-line tier. They also offer a Spanish-language tier for just $32.99.

Hulu + Live TV, on the other hand, starts at $69.99 for Hulu (with ads) + Live TV. It increases to $82.99 for Hulu (without ads) + Live TV. Both tiers come with ads during live television streaming, regardless of if the user pays for an ad-free or ad-supported Hulu plan.

Streaming Titles

Secondly, beyond price, there’s the number of streaming titles to consider for each service. FuboTV is limited strictly to the number of titles available via the user’s channel lineup. There are over 10,000 titles available to stream on-demand, in addition to the hundreds of live channels, but this content will not exceed the limits of the channels themselves.

Hulu, on the other hand, offers these same features on top of the pre-existing Hulu library available to subscribers at no additional cost. This means that Hulu + Live TV has a much larger number of streaming titles available.

Available Bundles

Lastly, we should spend some time discussing the bundles available to subscribers of Fubo vs Hulu + Live TV. Channel bundles and add-ons are hugely appealing, as they add additional value to these already valuable streaming television services.

FuboTV offers numerous add-on bundles, most notably Showtime + Starz + MGM+ for an additional $20 a month. Hulu + Live TV, by comparison, offers slightly more attractive bundles. Users can add ESPN+ and Disney+ to their subscription for a small fee of just $1 a month. Jumping up to the $82.99 tier removes ads on both Hulu and Disney+.

The History of FuboTV

FuboTV Inc. — more often seen stylized as fuboTV — is one of several top contenders in the streaming television space. However, FuboTV stands apart from the crowd by putting a special emphasis on the availability of live sports channels both regional and national.

While the lineup will vary depending on subscribers’ locations, FuboTV can give subscribers access to anything and everything from NFL to MLB, NBA to NHL, MLS to ESPN, and beyond. This availability dates back to FuboTV’s origin in January 2015, when it began as a streaming service solely dedicated to soccer.

FuboTV drifted away from its all-sports model in 2017. Since then, FuboTV has kept plenty of focus on sports while also branching out to hundreds of other cable and network television stations, as well. They’re now what the industry calls a vMVPD: a virtual multichannel video programming distributor.

Today, FuboTV offers three tiers to choose from. These tiers range from nearly 150 channels for the base tier, FuboTV Pro, all the way up to more than 215 channels for the top tier, FuboTV Premier. This doesn’t even begin to encompass the number of premium add-ons and features at an additional cost.

The past year has been a major one for FuboTV. In August 2022, actor-turned-investor Ryan Reynolds purchased an equity stake in the streaming television service. Then, in December of 2022, FuboTV announced they’d soon be offering Scripps and Sinclair Broadcast Group networks — including nearly 20 regional Bally Sports networks.

Later that month, FuboTV revoked access to all of AMC’s networks (including IFC, BBC, and, of course, AMC). The following month, in January of 2023, FuboTV raised the price of its base model Pro plan to around $75 per month.

How Hulu + Live TV Compares

Hulu Plus was an important part of Hulu’s business model between the years 2010 and 2015. Originating in 2007 as a free, ad-supported service for watching recently aired television episodes, Hulu adopted the “Plus” name for its paid, ad-free tier.

In 2015, Hulu abandoned the “Plus” and shifted away from the free plan to become an exclusive paid service. Years later, Hulu once again returned to the “Plus” name, but for a different reason. In 2017, Hulu introduced a live-streaming television service for an additional fee.

By the time the newly dubbed Hulu + Live TV service was ready to launch, Hulu had put together a seriously impressive ensemble of names and cable networks. FX, FOX (plus FOX News and FOX Sports), CNN, ABC, Disney Channel, TCM, ESPN, TNT, Freeform, TBS, and dozens more.

Given the success of Hulu over the previous decade and the growing arsenal of channels they had to their name, Hulu unsurprisingly gained a million subscribers in less than a year. Today, that number has multiplied exponentially to 5 million.

Looking at Hulu + Live TV’s total number of subscribers, in comparison to other streaming television rivals such as Sling TV, Philo, or Fubo, it’s not hard to see that Hulu + Live TV reigns supreme. As a matter of fact, Hulu + Live TV has more subscribers than Sling’s 2.5 million subscribers, Philo’s one million subscribers, and Fubo’s 1.25 million subscribers added together.

Hulu’s appeal over its competition is not hard to understand: not only are they offering hundreds of live-streaming television channels, but they’re also offering a full-fledged streaming service.

FuboTV vs Hulu + Live TV: Pros and Cons

FuboTV vs Hulu + Live TV: Which One Is Better?

So, between FuboTV and Hulu + Live TV, is there a clear winner? Let’s consider what we’ve discussed thus far. Hulu + Live TV has cheaper tiers and better bundles, but FuboTV has a superior number of sports and regional channels.

FuboTV also has greater options for Spanish-language subscribers, not to mention the larger number of simultaneous streams. However, Hulu + Live TV includes full access to the Hulu streaming library — plus Disney+ and ESPN+. It’s a close call but, in the end, the winner has to be Hulu + Live TV.