Hulu and Showtime have announced a partnership that will bring a bundled streaming service to market next month.
The bundle will allow paying Hulu customers to tack on Showtime’s upcoming standalone streaming service for a combined cost of $17 a month — less than what it would cost to purchase both services separately.
Currently, Hulu’s premium product (formerly known as Hulu Plus) costs $8 a month while Showtime’s service is expected to cost around $11 a month, which means the combined subscription will save subscribers $2 a month.
Hulu, a consortium of Disney-ABC, NBCUniversal and 21st Century FOX, offers video programming from broadcast and cable television alongside a small movie library. Showtime’s app will combine the company’s live channels with a selection of on-demand choices from the network’s library of original series and Hollywood films.
The Hulu-Showtime bundle will come with a free 30-day trial. Showtime’s standalone app will also come with a 30-day trial for those who don’t want Hulu. Both subscription plans will offer two live feeds of Showtime’s cable channels; for Hulu-Showtime subscribers, the live streams will only be accessible via web at launch.
The news comes several months after Showtime competitor HBO launched a standalone Internet application called HBO Now. The app rolled out exclusively to Apple device users and is expected to be made more broadly available in the next few weeks.
Hulu primarily competes against Netflix, Amazon Prime Instant Video and free streaming services like Crackle and YouTube.
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