Hulu To Launch Globally On Disney+ On October 8th
Over the past couple of years, Disney has slowly been integrating the Hulu brand into Disney+ in the United States, bringing its wide selection of general entertainment with shows like “Grey’s Anatomy”, “Only Murders In The Building” and “Shogun” into what was originally a family-friendly streaming service, as in 2026, Hulu is set to merge into Disney+ in the United States.
Over the last two years, we’ve seen Disney slowly getting audiences used to the concept that Hulu would be incorporated into Disney+, including even changing the main core colour of Disney+ to a teal, to bring Hulu’s iconic green colour into the mix.
Internationally, things were a little different, as back in 2021, Disney+ added a new sixth hub called “Star”, which featured all of the movies and shows from Disney’s studios such as 20th Century Studios, Searchlight Pictures, FX and ABC.
The main reason the Star branding was used internationally, instead of Hulu, was due to a contract in place between Comcast and Disney, since Comcast still owned 33% of Hulu, so had Disney used the Hulu branding globally, it would have increased the value of the brand. This was something Disney didn’t want to happen, as in 2024, a clause in the contract signed back in 2019, meant that Disney could force Comcast to sell their stake in Hulu, so increasing the value would mean Disney would have to pay more.
Earlier this summer, Disney finalised the deal with Comcast, to take full ownership of Hulu and CEO Bob Iger revealed during a quarterly investor call, that internationally, Star would be rebranded to Hulu later this year.
Disney has officially announced that the rebranding of Star to Hulu will take place on October 8th 2025. Confirming the date that was revealed a few weeks ago by mistake in a “Futurama” YouTube video.
For Disney+ subscribers around the world, it’s important to note that all of the content will remain the same. While Hulu in the United States has a vast amount of licensed content that won’t be available globally, the availability of content will vary from country to country.
Subscribers will still have access to all their favourite shows: “High Potential”, “Only Murders in the Building”, “Alien: Earth”, “A Thousand Blows”, “Rivals”, “Flintoff”, “Grey’s Anatomy”, “Modern Family” and many more.
There are lots of benefits from Disney’s point of view with the rebranding of Star to Hulu, as this will drastically reduce their advertising costs, as they will no longer need to make trailers and posters with both branding, plus it will make it much easier for them to market new shows and films globally, without confusing customers, as social media transcends borders.
Disney is also going to drop the Hotstar branding in many countries across South East Asia on the same day as Hulu launches, as it looks to unify Disney+ globally.
Roger’s Take: This has been a long time coming, and it has been pretty obvious that this was the long-term plan for years, as the launch of Star globally showed what Disney+ needed to do, in order to compete with Netflix and Amazon. However, the biggest hurdle was always the US market, as Hulu is a separate streaming service, with a co-owner. These barriers are breaking down, and the combination of Hulu and Disney+ is going to supercharge the streaming service globally. I also expect we’ll start seeing lots more changes to Disney+ globally, as the Hulu brand is fully incorporated in 2026.
What do you think of Hulu replacing Star globally? Let me know on social media!
