Hulu-Dis-ESPN+ – Questions, questions…

Guys, Mrs. Grouse says ditch the dish. A couple of her shows have moved to Disney and I’m tired of paying $1500 a year for 22 shopping channels and a bunch of other crap.

We have Fire Sticks on every TV and some kind of hopped-up internet that Mrs. Grouse needed for work, so I think we’re good there.

Looking at the Hulu/Disney/ESPN+ combo pack, but their website does a horseshit job of actually having any real info. So, questions.

1. ESPN+ – We already have a VPN so do I understand correctly that I’ll be able to fake my location and watch EVERY MN Wild game? Probably with the exception of the TNT games, but are the majority of the games that are normally on BSN also on ESPN+ if you can fake out the location with VPN?

2. Again on ESPN+. If I can’t watch the game live, are past games available “on demand” for a certain time period?

3. Over to HULU. I can’t get a straight answer, are local channels like WCCO, KSTP, etc on HULU’s bundle with Dis/HULU/ESPN+ or is that yet another add-on? I don’t want to go to antennae because then there’s all the damn remote shuffling to switch inputs, etc.

Many thanks.

Grouse

On #1 you are 100% correct. I was unable to get the TNT games even if I tried to use the TNT app through the fire stick. TNT told me to turn off my VPN in order to use their app. If I turned it off it told me it was blacked out. That’s sort of concerning considering the ESPN app doesn’t do that, YET.

I can’t answer 2 and 3 confidently but I had a Hulu sub before I did the bundle. I suspect the Hulu sub is specifically for their streaming shows, NOT live tv. Needs to be verified. Hulu is sort of like Netflix where they were a movie streaming service but later added live tv. I do think you can stream past games for a period but have no idea how long that period is.

My Hulu sub is now around $80. It started out around $40 a few years ago. Seems to increase about $5-10 each year now.

On another note about the VPN, I had trouble using the Private Internet Access VPN through the fire stick. It didn’t seem to work.

I cancelled that sub and got an Express VPN sub and it’s worked every time. Seems to be a much better product.

You’re talking the Hulu+ or whatever it’s called now bundle, right (the one with live TV)?

Not sure on #1 as I don’t have a vpn.
#2 – Haven’t tried to replay nhl games but have done college football/basketball replays on espn+
#3 – I get all of my local channels in my area.

About the only thing you lose with streaming is FSN, and that hasn’t been much of a loss with the state of the MN sports franchises.

I’ve been happy with it. I started out with firesticks a few years ago and had a couple of them go bad so on the advice of a friend switched to a Roku and have been happy with that. About the same price as a firestick if I remember correctly.

slough wrote:

About the only thing you lose with streaming is FSN, and that hasn’t been much of a loss with the state of the MN sports franchises.

Yes, the damn sports and the mess they have with these so-called regional sports networks going broke and yet not being available on streaming is what is driving me to find ANY other way to ditch the dish AND still have at least MOST of the MN Wild games.

But I still have to have some way to watch past games because I can’t catch every Wild game live.

Can somebody with ESPN+ confirm that they can go back and watch a past Wild game on demand?

You can use DirecTV streaming service and watch all games on Bally. I think it costs about $20 more than Hulu. Still cheaper than the dish

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>slough wrote:</div>
About the only thing you lose with streaming is FSN, and that hasn’t been much of a loss with the state of the MN sports franchises.

Yes, the damn sports and the mess they have with these so-called regional sports networks going broke and yet not being available on streaming is what is driving me to find ANY other way to ditch the dish AND still have at least MOST of the MN Wild games.

But I still have to have some way to watch past games because I can’t catch every Wild game live.

Can somebody with ESPN+ confirm that they can go back and watch a past Wild game on demand?

I just went and opened espn+ and searched, it won’t let me watch the game from 12/31 (says it’s blacked out in my area), but any game older than that appears to work. Maybe the blackout lifts after a few days?

I just checked ESPN+ and I was able to watch the entire game against the blues. Also the stars game.

So it goes back a couple days at least.

Added bonus is you can fast forward through commercials.

Another side note is that you’ll probably need to disable the vpn to use Hulu. It won’t let me watch using the vpn.

I’ve had the Disney Bundle since October 2021, strictly for the purpose of watching Wild games…

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

1. ESPN+ – We already have a VPN so do I understand correctly that I’ll be able to fake my location and watch EVERY MN Wild game? Probably with the exception of the TNT games, but are the majority of the games that are normally on BSN also on ESPN+ if you can fake out the location with VPN?
Yes, you can watch every game with the exception of TNT and NHL Network games, 5-10 per regular season. Don’t forget playoffs may be on TNT…

2. Again on ESPN+. If I can’t watch the game live, are past games available “on demand” for a certain time period?
Yes you can watch recent game replays, need the VPN enabled

3. Over to HULU. I can’t get a straight answer, are local channels like WCCO, KSTP, etc on HULU’s bundle with Dis/HULU/ESPN+ or is that yet another add-on? I don’t want to go to antennae because then there’s all the damn remote shuffling to switch inputs, etc.
I’ve noticed some news available on Hulu, but I don’t pay attention to what exactly it is so can’t confirm.

Got it, tried it, hated it, cancelled it. I thought Hulu was worthless, JMHO.

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

3. Over to HULU. I can’t get a straight answer, are local channels like WCCO, KSTP, etc on HULU’s bundle with Dis/HULU/ESPN+ or is that yet another add-on? I don’t want to go to antennae because then there’s all the damn remote shuffling to switch inputs, etc.

Their basic Hulu /Disney+ (with ads) / ESPN+ = $12.99/mo

The “legacy” Hulu+ Live TV / Disney+ (no ads) / ESPN+ = $74.99/mo

To watch local news, major channel live sports, etc., you need second one.
If you care about sports and are into Disney content, it’s worth every penny.

We have the Hulu+ Live Bundle, but no VPN. So we get a ton of hockey games, except the Wild games. And as far as I’m aware cannot watch past Wild games either. Maybe both would be fixed with a VPN. And we get the local channels with Hulu Live, although that recently switched to all Mankato stations for some reason. Haven’t done any checking on remedying that yet, as we don’t watch the news and the Mankato commercials are kinda funny. Based on the ads and their frequency, there is apparently a big competition going on between trailer companies in the greater Mankato area…

Just one more thing to explore before diving in. I don’t have Hulu+ as my primary streaming, so I don’t know specifics to that. However, if you use the DVR function like youtube TV, you’ll find channels and programs that won’t record. As an example, I can not record any current shows on Discovery. I watch nearly nothing live. Its always some odd ball time that I have. Streetoutlaws, Gold Rush…..never records and I only get the on demand for old shows that forces commercials down my throat. I have DISH at my farm and can record them there. BUT, that is an internal DVR that records a show in progress. The online DVR is streaming from its variable sources, so that falls under what ever agreements they have with the individual channels

BigWerm wrote:

We have the Hulu+ Live Bundle, but no VPN. So we get a ton of hockey games, except the Wild games. And as far as I’m aware cannot watch past Wild games either. Maybe both would be fixed with a VPN. And we get the local channels with Hulu Live, although that recently switched to all Mankato stations for some reason. Haven’t done any checking on remedying that yet, as we don’t watch the news and the Mankato commercials are kinda funny. Based on the ads and their frequency, there is apparently a big competition going on between trailer companies in the greater Mankato area…

That’s funny and strange! I also have Hulu Live and I’m a little closer to ‘Kato than you, I think. But I still get the City stations.

Randy Wieland wrote:

Just one more thing to explore before diving in. I don’t have Hulu+ as my primary streaming, so I don’t know specifics to that. However, if you use the DVR function like youtube TV, you’ll find channels and programs that won’t record. As an example, I can not record any current shows on Discovery. I watch nearly nothing live. Its always some odd ball time that I have. Streetoutlaws, Gold Rush…..never records and I only get the on demand for old shows that forces commercials down my throat. I have DISH at my farm and can record them there. BUT, that is an internal DVR that records a show in progress. The online DVR is streaming from its variable sources, so that falls under what ever agreements they have with the individual channels

You’ve probably tried this — but scroll past the “seasons” and into the “Extras” section and you may be able to find what you want there. For some reason a lot of Discovery and Nat Geo shows end up as 3-hour blocks of several episodes and the DVR recordings get misplaced in the “extras” section. They are also constantly screwing with series and episode titles that make it tougher to find them. I think it’s a ploy to get you to subscribe to Discovery+

I remember when streaming was a cheap and simple alternative to cable or dish. Now I have just as many complaints and issues with my YTTV as I did with Directv, and the price is only going to continue to rise.

If you have Verizon, one of there digital packages comes with the Hulu ESPN+ package for free. That’s how we get the package for free.

bigcrappie wrote:

If you have Verizon, one of there digital packages comes with the Hulu ESPN+ package for free. That’s how we get the package for free.

“free” haha well it’s included in the plan. I have the same Verizon plan and not sure how long that will last but it’s been close to 2 years now I think.