Does Cox Offer Hulu?
Hulu is one of the most popular internet video streaming and download platforms in the United States, and as of the beginning of 2022, has 40 million users. It provides a vast catalog of television programs, films, and other programs, available for watching on demand. Most cable and internet companies have bundled Hulu to be added as one of the channels that are offered in their cable packages. However, does this giant among cable providers, Cox which is one of the top three multi-systems in the United States, provide its customers with Hulu? This paper aims to provide a complete analysis of the Cox and Hulu relationship.
Cox and Hulu Availability
To date, there is no direct affiliation between Cox and Hulu as far as streaming services are concerned. Thus, Hulu is not available as an additional channel that can be ordered separately, or as a part of any of the Cox television service packages that are sold as bundled services by some of the giants in the cable services industry like Verizon Fios or Spectrum.
However, despite the such Cox does not directly provide Hulu, any customer of Cox internet services can independently subscribe to and use Hulu free of interference. This is so because Hulu is an Internet streaming OTT service that can only be accessed by a functional and fast network connection rather than also needing a regular cable television subscription.
Thus Cox internet users do not have any issues with streaming Hulu at home. They just have to go to Hulu.com or the Hulu app on an associated device and sign up for Hulu as they do for any other OTT service.
It is essential to understand why Cox doesn’t offer Hulu or any other streaming platform for that matter.
This is because Hulu as a streaming option has become very popular and is available almost everywhere, yet Cox does not offer it as a service to its customers. There are a few possible reasons why Cox does not have a Hulu deal in place: There are a few possible reasons why Cox does not have a Hulu deal in place:
1. Contractual issues - Common issues that often emanate from disputes between cable companies and content producers include licensing fees, and restrictions on bundling, among other things that may hinder Cox and Hulu from coming to a mutual agreement on carriage services.
2. Limitation on Third-Party Apps – Cox also limits the use of third-party apps to stream live programs or its own Cox Contour or Cox TV Online applications that are specialized for on-demand and live TV streaming services.
3. Competition Issues – Due to its cable TV and video-on-demand services, Cox probably considers profitable streaming channels like Hulu, Netflix, Disney+, etc. as its competitors. Therefore, Cox has relatively less motivation to directly compile these sorts of services.
4. Business Level Strategy - This is because while Cox Communications is originally a cable TV service provider, it may not necessarily consider it relevant in its current business approach and mission to form a partnership with an internet-based cable TV ‘killer app’ like Hulu. However, as more customers switch to internet streaming, this may not hold in the future. The company needs to be more aware and adjust for future changes.
Hulu Replacements from Cox
Even though Hulu itself is not offered by Cox, the cable company does provide some alternate streaming platforms for accessing a library of TV shows and movies, mainly:
- Cox TV Online and Cox Contour App: Enable streaming of live channels both at home and out of home, and access to thousands of On Demand titles available with Cox TV packages. It contains many of the cable channels often seen in the United States.
- Premium Partner Apps: If you are a Cox cable internet or TV subscriber and you are a subscriber to HBO, SHOWTIME, or STARZ among other cable premium channels, then you can subscribe to the respective cable streaming applications with your cable account information. These are the streaming service apps that let you access the libraries of those channels’ present and previous original series.
However, the options of content that can be chosen from such Cox-provided alternatives are significantly inferior in comparison with 75,000+ episodes of TV shows and Movies available on Hulu. As such they provide some level of streaming convenience to Cox customers given that they are not a complete substitute of what services such as Hulu bring to the table.
How to order Hulu with Cox Internet?
Once more, this does NOT mean that Hulu is unavailable directly through Cox for the customers, but rather it means that Cox customers can access Hulu and stream it themselves. Hulu is accessible to Cox Internet residential customers directly at cox.com/hulu and through the Hulu website and app.
Both new and existing Cox Internet customers have multiple Hulu subscription options to choose from:
- Hulu with Ads has a subscription price of $7.99 per month.
- Hulu (No Ads) – $14.99 per month
- The Disney Bundle – Hulu, Disney+, ESPN+ with a monthly subscription of $13.99.
Unlike many cable providers and streaming services, Hulu will be compatible with every Cox Internet plan you can use at home. Whether you are using their Internet Starter 10 or up to the Gigablast Internet at 1,000 Mbps, this means that users can stream Hulu together with other internet media services.
The only condition is that you have the required internet connection speed in your house to stream Hulu without any issues, and this should be at least 3-5 Mbps per stream. Meeting this is not a problem for Cox’s available speed tiers.
Thus, the ultimate picture is that all the Cox broadband internet users can self-enroll in Hulu to watch on the home network connection. It means that it is not also mandatory to install Cox cable TV services to be in a position to access Hulu. Downloading it can be done just like you use any other streaming site or app to download.
The Future Possibilities
Even though Hulu does not offer its service through Cox directly as we speak, it cannot be ruled out that this may occur in the future. Hulu is further poised to become a more significant force and service people look to as cable TV becomes less of a scheduled event and more of a time the consumer sets aside to watch streaming services.
If Cox ever sees significant losses in numbers or if they are directly losing their customers to these platforms, then Cox might have to form a partnership with Hulu or other similar services. These allowed Cox to renegotiate carriage deals that could have previously been unfavorable or did not support Cox’s strategic priorities.
As of now, there is no clear leader when it comes to streaming services. Thus, the only thing we are left to do is to wait and see whether Cox has ever considered partnering with Hulu or other significant streamers to be helpful for its operations and helpful for its consumers. However, today, Cox users, although they would not find Cox contributing to Hulu in the process, can easily access to enjoy Hulu on their own.
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