If you’re a Hulu With Live TV subscriber and woke up today without your local ABC affiliate, you’re not alone. The streaming service no longer has access to the Sinclair-owned ABC affiliates.
That doesn’t mean you won’t see any ABC content: ABC shows are still available on demand, as is ABC via the “Localish” channel. But if you rely on a Sinclair-owned ABC affiliate for local programming, you’re going to miss out.
While Hulu has not released a definitive list of affiliates lost, Sinclair has “local and regional platforms that reach approximately 70% of the US population,” according to the company’s website. And its list of ABC affiliates includes metropolitan service areas (that’s the term by which markets are described rather than mere “cities”) such as Washington, DC (ranked 8th in the country), Seattle-Tacoma ( No. 12), St. Louis (No. 24) and Portland, Oregon (No. 22).
Hulu hasn’t put out any official press releases either, but the Hulu support Twitter account is responding to incoming tweets that “Sinclair owns several local ABC affiliates across the country, and as of March 8, Hulu no longer has the rights to distribute those channels (hulu.tv/My Channels). Let us know if she has any other questions!”
More about Hulu with Live TV
Carrier disputes like this are not uncommon in the streaming space, nor are they limited to Hulu With Live TV, which is the second-largest live streaming service in the US with 4.5 million subscribers as of the end of 2022. YouTube TV, which has also seen its share of transportation disputes, reported having more than 5 million subscribers as of June 2022, but hasn’t updated since.
Hulu With Live TV costs $70 a month and has more than 90 channels. (Minus the local ABC affiliates owned by Sinclair.) It also includes the Hulu on-demand library and also gives you subscriptions to Disney+ and ESPN+.
Here is the full list of Sinclair ABC affiliates as seen on their website:
- Abilene-Freshwater
- Amarillo, Texas
- Birmingham, Ala.
- Champaign-Springfield-Decatur, Illinois.
- Charleston-Huntington, West Virginia
- Chattanooga, Tennessee.
- Columbus, Ohio
- Dayton, OH
- Eureka, Calif.
- Florence-Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
- Greensboro-High Point-Winston Salem, North Carolina
- Greenville-Spartanburg, South Carolina; Asheville, North Carolina; Anderson, South Carolina
- Greenville-New Bern-Washington, NC
- Lincoln-Hastings-Kearney, Nebraska.
- Little Rock-Pine Bluff, Ark.
- Mobile, Ala.-Pensacola, Fla.
- Ottumwa, Iowa-Kirksville, Mo.
- Portland, Ore.
- Roanoke-Lynchburg, Virginia.
- Rochester, New York
- San Angel, Texas
- Seattle-Tacoma, Wa.
- Saint Louis, Missouri
- Traverse City-Cadillac, Mich.
- Tulsa, Oklahoma.
- Washington D.C.
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