Hulu Launches On Disney+ Around The World
Today, Disney has rolled out its general entertainment brand, Hulu, onto Disney+ around the world, replacing Star in international markets.
With this branding update, subscribers can continue to enjoy and explore content they know and love on Disney+, from award-winning general entertainment, gold-standard family programming, to a growing collection of Disney+ Originals, including home-grown Australian content.
This rebranding means that Hulu will replace the Star hub, and the Star logo will no longer be found on thumbnails or in the pre-bumper ads before original programming.
Hulu launched initially in 2007 in the United States and was originally intended as a direct competitor to Netflix, with many of the major studios, including Comcast, Warner Brothers, 20th Century Fox and Disney, all partial owners. However, when Disney purchased 20th Century Fox in 2019, it set off a chain of events that resulted in Disney finally becoming the sole owner of Hulu earlier this summer.
Disney plans to merge Hulu into Disney+ in the United States in 2026, which is why the international rollout is happening now. This move aims to unify its streaming platforms and bring more uniformity to its streaming strategy.
The Star brand was used for the general entertainment hub on Disney+ internationally, since the Hulu brand had been used, it would have increased the value of Hulu, resulting in Disney having to pay more to Comcast for its share. So Disney held off using the Hulu brand internationally until its contract with Comcast was finalised.
It’s important to note that while Hulu now exists on Disney+ around the world, it doesn’t mean the entire Hulu library from the United States will be available on Disney+ globally. This is because many of the shows and films on Hulu are only licensed by Disney for the United States.
This shift to the Hulu brand will mean it will be easier for Disney to promote new shows and films, without having to create new artwork and trailers with the Star branding, plus it will also work with global advertising campaigns and result in less confusion for subscribers. It’s also worth noting that Star still exists in Japan, as Hulu remains the same. Although it split away in 2014 as its own company and isn’t owned by Disney, the two companies still collaborate through a bundle.
Earlier this year, Disney+ started promoting Hulu Originals in Canada and began heavily promoting Hulu on Disney+ in the United States, as it gets ready to incorporate Hulu into Disney+ in 2026. In the coming weeks and months, we will continue to see changes to the Disney+ app as it prepares to merge everything together. Today’s step of incorporating Hulu globally makes it easier for them to implement significant changes.
Roger’s Take: It’s taken a long time to finally get here, as I’ve been expecting the Hulu brand to replace Star for many years. This unification of brands will make marketing much easier for the company, such as with the launch of the new “All’s Fair” original series, where it referenced that the show will be available on Hulu On Disney+ around the world. For Disney+ subscribers internationally, this shift from Star to Hulu will have minimal impact, as the only main difference is the logo changing from Star to Hulu.
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