ASPEN, Colo.—Hulu’s CEO, Mike Hopkins, said the launch of the company’s new Live TV service is “going really well” and that Hulu is planning to launch a major advertising campaign in the fall to promote the new offering.
“We’re learning a ton every day,” Hopkins said here during an appearance at the Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference. He added that the company continues to make tweaks to its Live TV service as it records users’ reactions to and interactions with the offering.
“We’re ahead of where we thought we’d be,” Hopkins said of the launch of Hulu Live TV. He added that the company plans to promote the service with a major fall marketing campaign, but he did not provide any other details on Hulu’s service, including how many customers have signed up for it.
Hulu Live TV launched earlier this year. The service is priced at $39.99 per month and includes access to all content that comes with a traditional $8 per month Hulu subscription. Customers can upgrade to the commercial-free on-demand tier for an additional $4 per month.
During his appearance, Hopkins explained that Hulu has a major leg up on its competition because of all the data the company is gathering about its customers. “Having that data about our users … gives us an advantage,” he said, noting that for example Hulu has found that customers who enjoy its new “Handmaid's Tale” show also enjoy its “Harlots” show.
“Each and every year you get better” at using such data, Hopkins said.
Interestingly, Hopkins said that the most popular search term for the past three years at Hulu has been “game of thrones.” That’s noteworthy since Hulu just this month added HBO’s service to its lineup. HBO will be available to Hulu subscribers for an additional $14.99 per month and Cinemax for $9.99 per month.
Moreover, Hulu continues to work to flesh out the Live TV channel lineup. Also this month the company switched on 35 more local CBS TV affiliates for its live TV streaming service. Hulu said 28 of the channels are already live and seven more will go live later today. With the addition of these channels, Hulu said it has added 90 local CBS affiliates.