Key Points
- The Walt Disney Company is working to shift Hulu users to Disney Plus under an internal plan called Project Gemini.
- The strategy aims to eventually shut down the standalone Hulu app and consolidate streaming operations.
- The effort reflects Disney’s push to streamline technology and reduce redundancies across its streaming platforms.
Staffers at the Walt Disney Company tasked with overseeing its streaming platforms are making a more-concerted effort to push subscribers off the standalone Hulu app in favor of distributing more-mature content through Disney Plus.
According to an internal document, the company has organized a strategy called “Project Gemini” with the goal of shutting down the standalone Hulu app in the near future, though no concrete date has been set for the full closure of the service.
Hulu subscribers who opt for the Disney Plus bundle already have content to Hulu’s shows and movies through both apps, with Disney Plus launching a dedicated Hulu tile last year. Disney’s former CEO, Bob Iger, long expressed a desire to move more Hulu customers to Disney Plus in an effort to streamline the company’s direct-to-consumer operations.
After buying out Comcast’s share in Hulu, Disney began reorganizing parts of its streaming business units with a more-discernible focus on Disney Plus. Some staffers who were previously tasked with supporting the Hulu app have now moved over to Disney Plus, according to people familiar with the matter.
This week, a report from Business Insider cited an internal document that referred to Disney’s new strategy as “Project Gemini.” The overall goal of Project Gemini is to move Hulu subscribers off that app, with the Hulu technology stack being “decommissioned after all users have transitioned” to Disney Plus.
A spokesperson for Disney told the website that the company has no immediate plans to shut down the Hulu app, and other workers said the company is concerned that acting too quickly to close the Hulu service would create problems for a large number of subscribers who still use that app.
That includes subscribers who don’t purchase access to Disney Plus through a bundle, which leaves the Hulu app as the only way to watch shows and movies from the service, and those who pay for a version of Hulu that includes live TV networks from Disney, Fox Corporation, NBC Universal, Paramount and other programmers.
Around four million people still pay for Hulu with Live TV, which is now part of Disney’s Fubo subsidiary, according to two knowledgeable sources. Hulu with Live TV comprises the largest part of Disney’s pay TV business. Officially, Fubo now commingles its own subscriber count with that of Hulu with Live TV in financial reports.
While Disney may be downplaying its effort to wind down Hulu, there are signs that the company wants more Hulu subscribers using Disney Plus. Last month, Disney launched a new feature that allows subscribers to sync their watch lists between the Hulu and Disney Plus apps while also unlocking a handful of shows and movies from Hulu for those who only purchase access to Disney Plus.
Executives are also hoping to eliminate redundancies across Hulu and Disney Plus by utilizing a single technology platform for both services. Until a few years ago, Hulu was owned by a consortium of broadcasters and developed its own technology as an otherwise independent company. Disney Plus uses different technology that the company acquired from Major League Baseball, as does Disney’s sports service ESPN Plus.
