One of Hulu’s big promises with its Live TV service was that it would take advantage of being a digital platform to offer new experiences to viewers that wouldn’t have been possible with traditional television viewing. An example of this Hulu touted ahead of launch was mobile push notifications for games – but in the many months following Hulu Live TV’s May 2017 debut, that feature hasn’t been available. That changes on Monday: when Hulu launches its personalized March Madness experience, it will also include push notifications for game start times.
When you subscribe to Hulu with Live TV, you’ve always had the option to add your favorite sports teams to “My Stuff,” which helps Hulu to surface the games you want to follow in your lineup, and automatically records them.
Now, Hulu will send iOS and Android users a push notification when your selected teams’ games are about to start, too.
That will remind you to tune-in, or for more casual fans, will serve as a reminder to check in on the game later to see how it turned out.
Hulu Live TV is also launching a personalized March Madness experience on Monday, after Selection Sunday wraps.
Similar to the personalized hub Hulu created for the 2018 Olympic Winter Games, the hub for the NCAA tournament will offer fans a way to browse all the live, upcoming and on-demand March Madness content, including also game highlights and full game recaps, as well as other content like March Madness Moments, Team Confidential, Dunk of the Day, and Final Four Features.
If users skipped over the NCAA team-picking process, they’ll be able to do this from the dedicated hub’s page, instead.
Fans can opt to follow favorite NCAA men’s and women’s teams throughout the tournament by adding them to “My Stuff” at any time, which will trigger those games to be automatically recorded.
The 2018 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship includes 68 teams and tips-off on Tuesday, March 13, 2018. Meanwhile, the Division I Women’s Basketball Championship begins on March 16, and features 64 teams.
For a few added perks, fans who watch via the beta version of Hulu on the web, can also try out upcoming features like picture-in-picture mode, and the ability to watch multiple games in different windows in the browser.
Of course, Hulu may still be in the doghouse with some sports fans, given the outage it experienced during the Super Bowl. The company seems to still struggle with big live events – it also had a lot of buffering during The Oscars, many reported, even on playback from the DVR. Hopefully it will get these issues worked out for March Madness.
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