Streaming service Hulu is on the brink of hitting two million live television subscribers, whilst Google is on the verge of surpassing a million paid subscribers with its YouTube TV product.
Bloomberg reports that the two companies combined have around three million subscribers, with each adding “hundreds of thousands” of customers every quarter.
It comes at the same time as Google announced a price increase for its live television subscription service, with YouTube TV now setting customers back $40 per month.
At the same time, the company rolled out the live TV service across the United States to fight against Comcast and Dish.
That’s not to say that traditional cable networks aren’t fighting back.
Sling TV, which is owned by Dish, finished off 2018 with more than 2.4 million subscribers, which makes it the most popular live television streaming service in the United States.
DirecTV Now, which is owned by AT&T, finished 2018 with 1.6 million subscribers, although the Bloomberg report suggests that both of these traditional providers are struggling to keep the momentum going, reporting slower growth than YouTube and Hulu in the same period.
Sony, which operates the PlayStation Vue live streaming service, has around 500,000 subscribers, although the company has not reported an update for a number of months.
In 2019, it is expected that Disney will gain majority ownership of Hulu, at the same time as it launches its own Disney Plus streaming service.
Apple, too, is set to add live TV streaming as an add-on to its upcoming television and movie streaming service.
Although the Cupertino firm will deliver on-demand content to consumers, it will allow customers to subscribe to third-party services, like HBO, CBS, and Viacom, many of whom are likely to offer their own streaming capabilities as part of a monthly fee.
With Apple set to enter the battle on March 25 with a press conference and Apple TV unveiling, we’re entering into exciting times but also seeing a greater fragmentation of home entertainment. Keep it AppleMagazine for the latest streaming news as and when we get it.
