Sling TV & Hulu Shutting Down? Here Are The Top 5 Most Likely Streaming Services to Shut Down

Ajouté : 2026-05-14

[00:00:00]2026 is poised to see quite a few streaming services shut down or merge as they try to become profitable. For years, the goal of streaming was just to get subscribers and figure out profitability later. This cost services to launch well below the cost to operate and attract a lot of subscribers. Now they're trying to find a way to become profitable. And that's becoming harder than they thought it would be. As media companies who are used to fat paychecks from cable TV subscribers, even if you didn't watch that channel, you were still paying for it. Now have to actually get their revenue from people who watch their content and not rely on millions of people subscribing to ESPN, but also being forced to pay for many other channels. Here are the top five that I think are most likely to shut down in 2026. We're going to break down why and give you some thoughts. Now, if you want, I'll put uh to read all this, I'm going to put a link to the story I'm about to talk about over at corecarsnews.com in the show notes and in the first pin comment. And if you like what we do here, consider hitting that subscribe button or hitting that thumbs up. It really does help us because it lets YouTube know you enjoy what we do here so they recommend our videos to more people. All right, number one, Sling TV.

[00:01:11]Now, one of the earliest live TV streaming services really broke the mold and gave cord cutters access to live TV like ESPN, Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, and others back in the day when it first launched is now struggling and is in the middle of some big lawsuits against them and could be losing Disney owned channels soon. Now, Sling TV last year launched a day pass, a three-day pass, and a week-long pass to get subscribers.

[00:01:39]both Warner Brothers Discovery and Disney have sued saying they're not allowed to do it. We learned during the early motion which Sling TV did win to um where Disney was trying to get the judge to order them to stop offering these. The judge declined to do that while the court case goes through. The judge did me mention that in 2026 its contract with Disney will come up and he asked why don't you just figure this out at the contract. There's a lot of growing suspicion that that contract renewal with Disney could be very difficult, especially in the middle of a lawsuit. With that though, they've also been losing a lot of subscribers and revenue um with this. Now, in the first quarter 2026, Sling TV um and Dish lost a combined 366,000 and Sling TV is back well below 2 million subscribers.

[00:02:31]uh a few months ago, well a little bit longer than that now actually, um Dish tried to sell Sling TV and Dish Network TV services to Direct TV for basically a dollar plus all the debt and it's a lot of debt and there still are very heavily um indebted on that. But there's some hope there. Um, Dish is got some deals to sell it at Spectrum after failing to build its 5G network like it wanted to to compete with Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and others. They are now the fourth largest um provider of wireless service by subscribers who were building their own 5G network. Now, they've struck a deal to sell that spectrum to AT&T and SpaceX and will get them millions of dollars. that many people suspect that once they use that to clear up some debt over at Sling TV after the creditors failed to agree to the deal with Direct TV that may open it back up for DirecTV to buy Dish merge with it and merge Sling TV into Direct TV. We'll have to watch this closely, but Sling TV is our number one um out there as most likely to shut down in 2026 completely. It probably be folded into something else out there. Number two, Hulu. Now, not Hulu Plus Live TV. That's a separate deal. We'll talk about that a little bit later. But Hulu's on demand service.

[00:03:50]Now, we know for sure here in the next few months, Disney is going to shut down the Hulu app and you're going to have to access Hulu through Disney Plus. There is growing rumors that Disney is considering making Hulu an add-on to Disney Plus, that you would need Disney Plus to get Hulu, and Hulu would go away as an independent service. Now, that's not confirmed. What we do know though is the Hulu app is going away. There's a lot of question what Hulu Plus live TV's future is. Now it's got a joint venture with Fubo. We'll get to that in a minute. But keep a close eye on this.

[00:04:24]Hulu as a standalone service is in a rough spot. Now it's expanding around the world. They're um rebranding the Star streaming apps which was basically Hulu and other markets to Hulu. But they're really trying to put it behind Disney Plus. And for example, you used to be able to add Disney Plus to your Hulu subscription. They got rid of that deal. You now need to subscribe to H to Disney Plus and then add Hulu as a bundle if you want it. And that could be a sign of things to come. Keep an eye on Hulu. Well, it may not happen this year, but there's a lot of talk about Disney wanting to make Disney Plus their main stop and Hulu being like an add-on for additional content. Watch that closely.

[00:05:06]Number three, now this one's a little bit of a give me because we know it's happening. BET Plus is shutting down.

[00:05:11]Paramount bought out its joint uh partners in that streaming service and with this is going to be shutting down BET Plus and merging it content into the Paramount Plus app. No exact date for when that happens, but it's reportedly happening this year. And Paramount has confirmed the deal. They bought out all their joint venture partners over at BET and are rolling that into the um Paramount Plus app. So keep an eye on that. Now, Fubo is a sticky one. Now, a lot's happening in the world of Fubo.

[00:05:42]First of all, they um after suing Disney and others over their plans to launch a live TV streaming service, they settled that deal and agreed to a joint venture with Disney where Hulu Plus live and Fubo streaming services would be put into a new entity. Disney would own 70% of that new entity and but Fubo, which owns 30, their leadership team would run it. That's pretty common little thing here. But there's a lot of talk about what is the future of Fubo. They have lost NBC Universal channels recently and for quite some time now they've lost Warner Brothers Discovery channels.

[00:06:17]Meaning a good chunk of content out there is no longer available. No longer can you get CNN or MS Now. Uh for example, really Fox News is the only major um news organization on there. No NBC locals anymore. No HGTV, no TNT, no True TV and more. and NBC says, "Basically, we're not going to even discuss bringing our content back to your service. We'll talk to you again when Hulu's contract renews." There's a lot of talk about um merging Fubo into Hulu to try to do um migrate customers from Fubo to Hulu Plus Live. Now, those are all speculative on the outside, but keep an eye on it. They reported a massive loss of subscribers in the first quarter of 2026.

[00:07:02]Um now, they don't break it out anymore.

[00:07:04]It's just a combined number of Hulu and Plus Live TV and Fubo. But watch it closely. Well, it's probably not going to go away. Don't be surprised if they start trying to push people more to Hulu in the future as they try to find a way forward for it. But it's really is struggling. Um I've noticed talking to you a lot less interest in Fuvo since it doesn't have Warner Brothers Discovery and it doesn't have NBC Universal with it. Also keep an eye on some um smaller niche streaming services. AMC Plus, Stars, and MGM Plus have all been struggling to find subscribers and profitability.

[00:07:42]Stars in particular, now that it's independent from Lionsgate, has to stand on its own. There's been speculation of a bundle deal, or you know, we've talked about other options. Peacock, we'll get to in a minute, has struggled to find subscribers, struggled to be profitable, and they've reportedly started talks with some independent streaming services to merge. Even at one point discussing with Paramount, a joint venture where the two companies remain separate, but created a third entity that would have seen Paramount Plus and Peacock merge into a single streaming service. Now, that's not happening right now cuz Paramount now instead struck a deal with Warren Brothers Discovery to buy them, which would result in the HBO Max and Paramount Plus merging, but Peacock is looking for suitors. Keep an eye on these MGM Plus, Stars, and AMC Plus as potential targets for NBC Universal to strike joint ventures to bring all their content into Peacock as they try to find ways to become profitable.

[00:08:41]Now, a few other quick honorable mentions. I just talked about um Peacock. It's struggling to get subscribers and be profitable. It's really leaning into sports, but there's been a lot of talk and even reports of conversations with other streamers of a merger. Keep an eye on that. Another one is HBO Max. I mentioned it again earlier. Paramount's buying War Brothers Discovery if that closes and many people expect it to close. Well, maybe not when Paramount wants in the third quarter of this year, but keep an eye on this because that would mean probably the end of HBO Max as they are reportedly going to move it from um a HBO Max over to uh the Paramount Plus app. Now, what that would be called, would they change the name? We'll have to wait and see. But a lot's happening in the world of television with it. So, there's a lot happening there. Of course, we see consolidation here. I've said it for a long time. There are more streaming services on the market than the market can support. Back in 2020, with everything happening, people were subscribed to as many as six or seven streaming services on average. Now, the average American subscribes to three or fewer paid live TV streaming services, both on demand and live, with the over 50% of you in our surveys telling us that's what you subscribe to. We go to four and fewer. The vast majority of core cutters out there subscribe to four or fewer. So, let me know what do you think. Which one of these are most likely to shut down in 2026? You leave me a comment. Let me know. I want to hear from you. Until next time, don't forget to hit that subscribe button or don't forget to hit that thumbs up. It really does help us a lot. Hopefully, we can help you break free from the high cost of TV and still watch the shows you enjoy. Until next time, take care, be safe. I'll talk to you all again real