Hulu’s New Live TV Service Is Getting Better by the Day

Hulu With Live TV launched on May 3 with 50-plus cable channels, live and on-demand programming, and a complete overhaul of Hulu’s existing interface. The new design — built around bold, full-page images with an emphasis on vertical rather than horizontal navigation of shows — has been a bit jarring for existing subscribers.

“Hulu had the same UI for 10 years before we launched the new service,” says Ben Smith, who runs Hulu’s product design. “The new interface is really geared for a different product, so we knew the new interface would be very different and that it would be a lot for people to get used to.”

Smith sat down with Decider for a wide-ranging discussion about the new service and the modifications that Hulu is already making in the six weeks since the launch.

DECIDER: How many markets have all four — ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX — of the broadcast networks available?

BEN SMITH: Five so far, and there are more on the way. In many markets where we don’t have all four affiliates up and running yet, we have one or more of them up and running.

CBS announced in May that it reached a master agreements with its affiliates to negotiate with streaming services. How long will it take that to result in nationwide coverage?

There’s two parts to getting that done. There’s the agreement, and there’s all the technical aspects. With many of CBS’s affiliates, we’re in active testing right now and lighting up new affiliates on an almost daily basis.

[To see what broadcast channels are available in a particular market, you can use Hulu’s zip code search here.]

And you have FOX live across most of your markets, right?

Right, we have a big list of FOX affiliates and just lit up several more of them. All of the networks and their affiliates are coming along at their own pace as they complete what are fairly complex agreements with their affiliates.

In markets where you have the broadcast channels available on demand, does that look a lot like it does for current Hulu subscribers who have?

It’s the same user experience, and there’s more content available in some cases. In markets where we have NBC on demand, for example, there’s more NBC content available than what’s on the Hulu SVOD service.

Are you providing TV Everywhere logins for some channels?

One of the things that surprised us at launch is the demand for TV Everywhere authentication. One of our first support calls was from a subscriber in Iowa who wanted TV Everywhere authentication for the Big Ten Network app. We’ve been working with network partners, and they really want to provide that authentication. We have authentication for Disney XD and ESPN, there’s been strong demand for those.

How have the first six weeks or so since your launch been on the technical side — software bugs, streaming latency, picture quality, etc.?

We’ve been pleasantly surprised. We’ve been acutely aware of the challenges that others have had when they went online, and we’ve been very happy with what we’ve seen. We’re still working out some things on stream quality and on the metadata for programming, and we’ve been learning a lot about blackout rules [for local-market sports].

You launched on iOS, Android, Apple TV, Xbox One and Chromecast. Are the updates you’ve already made on those apps mostly bug fixes, or have you made some interface changes?

I would put the changes into three categories. The primary focus has been on improving the video delivery — reducing buffering, reducing stream failures — and releasing updates for those kinds of improvements every single day since we launched. The second category is making improvements to the UI based on feedback from the private beta we did before the launch. And the third category is responding to feedback from users.

Has the feedback from users identified some some specific things that you’re addressing?

To evaluate whether the new interface is working, we’re looking at whether people are getting to the programming they want to watch, and we’re looking at how they feel about it. We’ve been trying to look at those two ideas separately and looking at how the UI is performing — the number of minutes people are watching, the variety of things they’re watching — and then what are the elements where people are reacting negatively to the interface.

My biggest complaint with the interface is that it’s defaulting me on the startup screen to shows that I’m not already watching. Is that intentional?

People are feeling like they are further away from the content that they actually watch, so that is feedback that we have heard loud and clear. One piece of feedback we’ve gotten that’s very close to that is people wanting to find new episodes of shows that they’re watching. I watch ABC’s Designated Survivor every week, and we’re looking for ways to make it more visible to a user like me when there’s a new episode of Designated Survivor available.

That’s a combination of changing the order in which shows are presented in Lineup and Keep Watching, and we’re adding some badging that will show when new episodes are available. We have some changes we’re rolling out over the next two or three weeks that will further bubble up the shows you’re already watching into the main screen, which is called Lineup.

I wrote favorably about Hulu’s Watchlist feature in the fall when you added badging for new episodes and numbers that show how many episodes of a particular show are unwatched. I haven’t found a component in the Live TV interface to really match that.

That’s very fair feedback, and it’s an area where we haven’t done enough. For users who are habituated to Watchlist, we haven’t done enough to replicate it. That’s one of our top focus areas right now.

On platforms that you have not already rolled out, are you slowing down to get those changes into your released platforms first? Are you changing your roadmap any?

We’re staying on our roadmap. The data on how people are using the new UI has been very positive when we compare it to the old UI. People are watching more content, and they’re watching a bigger variety of content. Finding new things to watch is a key element of having a long-term relationship with a customer. We have Amazon Fire TV and Roku in private beta right now, and those will launch this summer.

If you look out across Hulu, Sling TV, YouTube TV, DirecTV Now and some of the other streaming bundles, do you see everyone trying to execute the same priorities with their interfaces?

Actually, I don’t think so. I would say that they’re fairly far apart and moving further apart. Some of that is driven by the demographics of the user base. I would contrast our interface with DirecTV Now and Sling TV, which I think are pulling more customers from their satellite ecosystem and have a much more traditional interface. There’s going to be a big diversity of types of experiences — more experimentation with ways to watch TV. I think we’re going to see a big wave of innovation.

Will Hulu end the $8 and the ad-free $12 plans at some point, or is that still compatible with what you’re doing as a company?

We are absolutely behind the $8 and $12 products, and we haven’t had any discussions about ending them. We know that people value TV and that people have different priorities and price points. Some people value live sports and news, and other people don’t. Some people accept ads, and other people won’t. We want to provide choice on price point and experience.

How important has it been to have a zeitgeist show like The Handmaid’s Tale while you’ve been launching the service?

I can’t say enough good things about the impact of The Handmaid’s Tale on Hulu’s brand. It’s really the first breakout hit for Hulu, the political conversation has lined up around it, and it’s just a great show. We think a lot more people will see it over the summer, and we’re excited going into Season 2.

Scott Porch writes about the streaming-media industry for Decider and is also a contributing writer for Playboy. You can follow him on Twitter @ScottPorch.