Hulu’s live TV service, though launched with a redesigned app, has undergone numerous updates to enhance user experience. Addressing viewer feedback, Hulu introduced a straightforward channel guide for its web version, aiming to make live content more accessible. This article dives into how to find and utilize this guide, particularly focusing on the web player.
Ben Smith, Hulu’s head of experience, acknowledged the initial challenges in accessing live content, stating that the new UI has been enhanced to improve discoverability of what’s on now, what’s on next, and changing channels. This enhancement directly addresses the need for an easily accessible channel guide.
The new channel guide can be accessed by clicking the new icon in the lower left corner while watching live TV or by hovering your cursor near the left side of the browser window. This displays what’s currently on each channel, and you can click the right arrow to see what’s up next.
Hulu's Channel Guide Interface
Currently, this dynamic guide is exclusively available on Hulu’s web player, which remains in beta. Hulu is evaluating user interaction with the guide before rolling it out to other platforms. This means users on mobile devices, streaming boxes, and game consoles won’t have access to this specific guide just yet. For those platforms, the “My Channels” section or the “Networks” listing in the Browse section serve as alternatives.
While the new Hulu design initially faced criticism, Smith notes positive outcomes, including a 5% increase in viewer engagement and greater consumption of newly discovered TV series and movies. Recent improvements have also led to a 70% increase in live content viewership since August, demonstrating the impact of these updates.
In conclusion, finding the guide on Hulu is simple if you’re using the web player. Look for the icon or hover on the left side of the screen. While the guide is not yet available on all platforms, Hulu is actively working on improving accessibility and overall user experience.
