App Merging Disney+ And Hulu Launches In Beta Next Month, Signaling The Next Phase Of The Streaming Wars
When Disney bought the Fox library in March of 2020, the deal gave them a sizable share of Hulu, which, at the time, was largely co-owned by Fox and Comcast. In the ensuing years, Disney has carefully established two streaming brands independently from one another. Disney+ has been used as an archive of their better-known animated features and TV shows, as well as the home of kid-friendly action franchises like Marvel and Star Wars. The more "adult" fare in the Disney catalog was shunted over to Hulu.
On November 1, 2023, however, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced that he was poised to pay Comcast $8.61 billion (although it could likely be more) in order to gain complete control of Hulu. Comcast, which includes NBC and Universal Pictures under its umbrella, has taken the deal. We've known for a while that Iger intends to combine Disney+ and Hulu into one massive streaming service, and in Disney's quarterly earnings call today, he announced a beta version of that app will roll out this December, with a full version hitting the market in the spring of 2024. This, despite recent years of struggle, price increases, library erasing, and financial losses.
The Disney+/Hulu app currently doesn't have a unique name, nor did Iger announce specific details as to how the two services would be folded together. He did, however, express optimism that their streaming platforms will certainly begin turning a profit by the fourth quarter of 2024. As of this writing, Disney offers a Disney+/Hulu bundle in North America which costs $9.99 a month for the version with advertisements, and $19.99 a month for the version without.
Iger's comments
Iger, pictured, said of the buyout and service merger that the company remains "on track to roll out a unified one-app experience domestically." It's likely that the new service will allow Disney to spread the Hulu brand into international markets. Currently, Hulu is not available overseas. Disney+, meanwhile, is available in 60 countries. The Variety article mentioned rumors on Wall Street that Disney purposefully hasn't yet launched Hulu overseas in an attempt to keep its overall value down, making its buyout from Comcast that much cheaper.
Around the time this Disney+/Hulu "one app experience" was announced, in May of this year, Disney announced it had lost four million subscribers.
Iger admitted that the current streaming landscape is fraught, proving — largely via strikes and a general souring on the medium — that it's not a wholly profitable model. In the old days of individual home video rental, a studio could gauge the popularity of its individual titles and pay royalties accordingly. With the streaming model, the studio only gets monthly subscription revenue and execs seem only to gain profits, allegedly, through shady stock valuation. Iger said back in March that streaming "is very, very tricky right now and before we make any big decisions about our level of investment, our commitment to that business, we want to understand where it could go."
What would be the better name for a Hulu/Disney+ service: "Hulsney" or "Dislu?" It's likely it will merely be called "Disney+" with an interior Hulu channel embedded therein. Hulu currently offers a live TV option, and no comment was made if that feature would be retained in this "one app" merger.