After nearly two decades, Hulu’s time as a standalone, entertainment-focused streaming app is coming to an end.
On Wednesday, executives at the Walt Disney Company affirmed plans to wind down the standalone Hulu app in favor of delivering all content from the streaming service within its cornerstone app Disney Plus, starting next year.
The move follows Disney’s completion of its buyout of Comcast’s one-third stake in Hulu earlier this year, bringing Disney’s ownership of the streaming service to 100 percent. That transaction cost Disney approximately $9 billion, including $8.61 billion in 2023 and $438.7 million this past June, following a valuation process settled via arbitration.
Disney will continue to sell standalone subscriptions to Disney Plus and Hulu, as well as bundled subscriptions that allow streamers to access content from both brands, HBO Max and ESPN Plus.
“Today we are announcing a major step forward in strengthening our streaming offering by fully integrating Hulu into Disney Plus,” CEO Bob Iger and CFO Hugh Johnston said in prepared earnings commentary. “This will create an impressive package of entertainment, pairing the highest-caliber brands and franchises, great general entertainment, family programming, news and industry-leading live sports content in a single app.”
Executives touted the integration as a way to improve user experience, reduce churn and achieve cost synergies. Advertising opportunities are expected to expand as well, given that Disney already sells ad inventory across both platforms. With both services consolidated on a single tech platform, the company sees improved engagement and personalization as key drivers of long-term profitability.
Globally, Hulu will be repositioned as a general entertainment brand. Starting later this year, Disney will replace the Star Plus content tile with Hulu for streamers who live outside the United States.
“Work is already underway to continue enhancing our technology, and over the coming months, we will be implementing numerous improvements within the Disney Plus app, including exciting new features and a more personalized homepage,” Iger and Johnston added.
Disney is still moving forward to merge Hulu’s pay TV business, called Hulu with Live TV, into sports-focused streamer Fubo, a transaction that should be complete in 2026. When that occurs, Fubo’s executives will oversee the combined business of the two pay TV services that Disney will own outright. Disney intends to continue selling Hulu with Live TV and Fubo as separate services, but with the Hulu app winding down, it isn’t clear how Hulu with Live TV’s channels will be delivered to streamers.
The announcements were made as part of Disney’s fiscal third quarter (Q3) earnings report on Wednesday, during which the company disclosed Disney Plus added 1.8 million subscribers on a sequential basis while Hulu added 800,000 streamers. The two services combined now reach 183 million paying customers, Disney said.
After this quarter, that data will be hard to come by: Disney executives said they’ll follow in the footsteps of peer services like Netflix in not disclosing subscriber counts moving forward.
