Disney CEO Gives Update On Hulu & Disney+ Integration

Later this year, Disney is looking to simplify its streaming offerings in the United States, with the launch of what they are calling a “Unified App Experience”, which will bring Hulu into Disney+, allowing for the Hulu app to close down.

This was announced last year, and it’s the main reason we are seeing Disney promoting the “Hulu On Disney+” branding so heavily, to get users associating the two platforms as one, and why we’ve seen the Hulu On Disney+ hub expand not just in the United States, but also globally, replacing the Star hub internationally.

Disney hasn’t announced too much information about the merger of Hulu into Disney+, but during a recent Q&A session for the latest quarterly financial results, Disney CEO Bob Iger was asked about their plans for the Hulu integration into Disney+, to which Bob explained:

We’ve made huge progress turning the streaming business into a profitable business, developing the technology tools to improve both the user experience and to improve results and also developing programming across the globe. And I think it sets the business up to lean into accelerated growth that you’ll probably be hearing about more in the future.

The things you have to look at in terms of the components of growth are: one, continuing to deliver exceptional content, particularly on the international front; two, advancing the technology improvements that I just cited; three, answering your question, delivering a unified app experience; and then the fourth would be introducing new features such as vertical videos, Sora-generated content, et cetera, which we’ve talked about.

So far, the integrated experience that we’ve already offered with Disney+ and Hulu has resulted in a reduction in churn. And the same is true for the bundle with ESPN that the bundled subscribers churn out less. And we know that reducing churn is a critical component to improving the bottom line or creating growth.

And so we are hard at work on the technology front to create the one-app experience, even though consumers will always be able to get — buy Disney+ or Hulu on its own. But by and large, we believe the great majority of consumers will buy both, and it will be a fully integrated experience. I would guess that, that would be coming sometime at the end of the calendar year.

Roger’s Take: Disney executives are often very good at saying a lot but revealing very little. Bob’s comments indicate that we aren’t likely to be seeing Hulu integrated into Disney+ until the end of 2026. But it’s also interesting that they are still keeping two different subscription plans running, which seems unnecessary and unlike how Disney+ operates everywhere else, where Hulu is just a hub within Disney+ like Nat Geo or Pixar. It looks like Disney still wants to give the illusion of value with a bundle, since that has less churn than a single platform. Or its planning on dragging out the merger a little longer to make sure people stay subscribed. Either way, unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like Disney is ready to fully let go of Hulu yet.

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