• by P.J. Bednarski , Staff Writer @pjbtweet, January 11, 2017

It is logical that Hulu's planned streaming service revamp plans added emphasis on “live TV.” After all, Hulu’s reason for being is as an important first stopping-off point for previously aired content. Adding a new service makes Hulu a blend of old and new.

According to a story on Mashable, that’s one of the major thrusts to Hulu’s new content service which is now, according to the story, “sometime in the spring.”

It will join a list other live streamers--Sling TV, Playstation Vue  and the newest, DirecTV Now--that package together TV networks and offer their schedules as if they are playing out live, day-and-date on cable systems. You see what’s on TBS like anybody else watching. You just don’t also see what’s on channel 1334 on Comcast.

Hulu presumably will be doing something similar to competitors, too, but if the prototype Mashable reportedcomes to market, Hulu will be going to lengths to discover what you want to watch.  From the moment you launch it, Hulu “quizzes you on the kind of content you like — genres, networks and specific shows — before you even get to the home screen. Sorta like Foursquare, but for TV,” says Mashable.

With that info, every time you click on, Hulu can flag programs from comedies and dramas and news to sports--even particular teams--that are on TV at the moment or coming soon. It can even provide alert notifications when a team you care about does something momentous.

Hulu will also tell you when the old programs Hulu provides through its library are expiring, so you get a little head’s up on those sell-through-dates.

What may set Hulu apart is that while it present user interfaces with schedules of shows and networks you like pushed up front, it will also aggressively combine it with suggestions to dig deeper into that library of past programming. And everything can be DVRed into a Hulu cloud.

To me, it seems like it could be a significant enhancement of the Hulu brand. 

All the new services compete with little to large points of distinction. The hardest new wrinkle for the cord-cutters to smooth out about these offerings: Unsubscribing is just as easy as subscribing.  So consumers can easily sample services. At the beginning, those samples are usually free. But after a while, dropping one for another and then picking it up again will be possible and cheap--just the monthly fee.

One of the services is going to “win.”

The contest isn’t even over. Sometime this year, YouTube is destined to launch its own enhanced streaming that will also mimic a “TV schedule” to some extent.

I read Walt Mossberg's essay complaining these cord-cutting helpers just duplicate cable TV rather than push new content like Netflix. That’s true, but it’s a market that has been searching for a decade or more for someone to serve it.

Now, week by week, it seems, they’re getting another entrant.

pj@mediapost.com