Hulu’s livestreaming service now has 800,000 subscribers, according to a disclosure made by the OTT company’s CEO, Randy Freer, on CNBC yesterday.
The figure indicates impressive growth for the live component of Hulu’s streaming portfolio, which launched a little more than a year ago.
In the competitive virtual MVPD market, the $40-a-month Hulu with Live TV service ostensibly ranks third, behind Sling TV, which reported 2.3 million users at the end of the first quarter, and DirecTV Now, which simultaneously checked in at 1.46 million customers.
We use the word “ostensibly” here because Sony’s three-year-old vMVPD, PlayStation Vue, still hasn’t reported a subscriber benchmark. Neither has Alphabet’s YouTube TV, which launched around the same time as Hulu with Live TV.
RELATED: Sony says PlayStation Vue bringing in useful data, has no plans to shut it down
Earlier this year, Hulu announced that it surpassed 20 million subscribers for its flagship SVOD services.
The latest benchmark comes at an interesting time for Hulu, with with its ownership group set to consolidate amid merger talks—the streaming company is jointly owned by The Walt Disney Company, 21st Century Fox, Comcast/NBCUniversal and Time Warner Inc.
RELATED: Fox CEO says about 50% of Hulu subscribers take $11.99 limited-ads option
Earlier this week, Fox CEO James Murdoch told Recode that about 50% of Hulu subscribers are willing to pay $11.99 per month to cut down on ads popping up during streams.
Recode later updated its story to cite insiders who say that more than 60% of Hulu subscribers still take the less expensive, ad-supported tier.