Disney Plus & Hulu are MERGING!

They’re probably doing it because Disney+ has lost another 4 million subscribers in the first quarter of this year alone.

I subscribed to it because I wanted to see WandaVision, Moon Knight, Ms. Marvel, and She-Hulk. Watched all of them in about a month or so, then cancelled it. Don’t really care about the Star Wars stuff or most all of the Marvel movies.

Good. I have Hulu, but not Disney.

R3 same. I had Disney for a while (I did the 1 year with them when they launched) but after did a few months then left. Haven’t been back. I hardly used it.

I love Hulu

Hulu was owned by Fox. Which was purchased by Disney. I think Disney already owned Hulu via Fox. The services were already offered as a discount bundle. Now it will be one platform and likely one set of executives

I really prefer the Hulu interface, so I guess we will see.

I love Hulu. Never really found anything on Disney+ that interested me enough to pay those high prices to watch.

Wonder where they will land with the pricing of these merged services.

We’ll see!

You do realize that Disney already owned Hulu, don't you?

Frankly, combining them and reducing the ridiculous streaming fragmentation is a good thing - depending on how much they raise the price, that is.

R9 we are aware. But they will now merge into one app. That’s the news. It’s not so serious to be nasty over.

Supposedly Hulu content will move to Disney+ instead of the other way around, meaning it will most likely use D+ interface over Hulu.

[quote][R9] we are aware. But they will now merge into one app. That’s the news. It’s not so serious to be nasty over.

Clearly, you missed the part about "pointless bitchery" in the DL description...

What does that mean for those of us with the $1.99/month Hulu deal who don't want Disney?

R13 what do you think it means?

The linked story is inaccurate.

The two services will be combined on the same app but will remain stand-alone services, as they must because Disney is nit the full owner (yet) of Hulu.

I remember the drama when Love, Victor was originally supposed to be on Disney+, but then was moved to Hulu. I assumed that Disney owned Hulu even back then, or at least owned a significant share of that streaming platform.

Disney didn’t own Hulu yet at the time, FOX did. But you are correct about the latter part.

R13 I'm sure some of that was when Verizon mobile customers chewed through the complimentary 1 yr subscription. I know my entire family and I took advantage of that offer early on. I didn't find enough content on there to subscribe afterwards though. Maybe if I had kids but D+ doesn't have much going on for adults unless they want to watch discovery or super hero movies.

The only reason I’m subscribed to Disney+ is so I can (re)watch Buffy, Angel, X-Files, Simpsons, Futurama, etc. I never watch their original content.

I guess I am in the minority. I watch the new Marvel movies, the Star Wars series, and now the Anne Frank miniseries. I forget to cancel Hulu in between seasons of Handmaid’s Tale, but have watched very little else there.

R18 that was 2020 into 2021, when they launched. They grew more in 2021 into 2022. The final quarter of 2022 is when they saw a drop. And now the drop is even bigger.

I read somewhere that the most watched title on Disney+ by miles is "The Simpsons."

All that money and hype on those garbage Star Wars shows and all anyone wants is just more Bart and Homer forever and ever.

"Disney Plus & Hulu are MERGING!"

Oh really? That's news to me.

Can not believe this needs to be posted on a forum for grown adults, but here we are.

Disney owning both properties doesn’t make it any less of a merger. In this case it is not two different corporations or companies or brands merging into one, but two different platforms being merged into one. Disney+ and Hulu will be merged, yes. What isn’t that person getting?

As for the platforms also being kept separate, that will only be for now. They aren’t gonna keep it as 3 platforms. That would be too costly. Disney doesn’t own Hulu entirely so they can’t get rid of Hulu 100% until they own it completely. I’m sure they are working on making that happen. Once they own it, the merge will be permanent and the only platform.

Disney owns 66% of Hulu.

Comcast owns the remainder.

How long before everything is owned by 2 companies, and then they announce the Amazon-Google/Disney-Apple merger.

R26 this. Disney should have never been allowed to buy FOX.

I hope this doesn’t fuck up my Hulu Live subscription.

Hulu started as a joint venture between Fox, NBC, and Disney. In the end, the Mouse was left holding the cheese. Disney currently owns 67% of Hulu with Comcast/NBCUniversal owning 33%. With Hulu officially merging/bundling into Disney+, it's not long before Iger is able to do what Chapek couldn't - hammer out a deal to acquire Comcast's remaining stake.

The major media and tech companies are tightening their belts, firing redundant staff, controlling spending on content, and, merging platforms and content libraries, all to make it easier for consumers to navigate the streaming landscape, and stabilize continued losses of subscribers as people cancel and switch services based on price sensitivity. When the streaming wars are all said and done, expect to pay $20/month for access to the premium tiers for each of the top five streaming services: 1) Netflix, 2) Disney/ESPN/Hulu, 3) WarnerMaxDiscovery, 4) Peacock-NBCUniversal, 5) Apple, 6) AmazonPrime, 7) Paramount. In the end, the legacy Hollywood studios media brands (Disney, Warner, NBC, Paramount) will remain and coexist with their tech rivals (Netflix, Apple, Amazon) to consolidate streaming via telecom giants (Verizon, AT&T, Comcast). Much like cable, it will cost you $100 month for official full access to your favorite streaming platforms.

I wonder if they will add in Hulu TV, which is a decent TV streaming service. I would drop cable but the prices of most tv streaming are too much versus cable.

Bummer, as a Hulu subscriber, I thought I was going to gain access to the Disney+ catalogue.

All the stuff that is Disney and formerly FOX on Hulu and its original programming will move to Disney+ while the stuff that they don’t own will stay on Hulu.

Disney has talked to Comcast about buying their share of Hulu for 9 billion dollars. Not a bargain by any means. Comcast should fleece the mouse before it is too late.

In Europe, Hulu content already appears on Disney+.

I got Disney for a year thinking it would have all the old Disney movies I grew up with and we know what a bum decision that was.

No more Disney thank you very much.

What old movies don't they have, R35?

Hisney.

I love old Disney movies - like when Kurt Russell was young and starred in classics like The Computer That Wore Tennis Shoes.

I watch Disney + way more than Hulu, it has a lot more content than you may think. They have good nature shows. I hate the Hulu interface. I already have the Hulu family bundle which includes Disney and ESPN+, so I hope that doesn't change.

Where Disney+ has huge programming gaps is in original shows. Sure, it's got all the franchise stuff like Marvel and Star Wars, but Hulu seems to do a lot more original programming and streaming series.

In some ways, keeping Hulu would make sense since a lot of the shows they do would not fly in the House of Mouse, as they say.

I had Hulu for a year on a 99 cents a month deal. Still wasn't worth it. Why do they have only season two or four of shows? Why would they have made that licensing deal? I do enjoy the genre stuff on Disney+ and some of their nature stuff but there always seems to be something missing. I think Disney is so sanitized feeling. The decided lack of gay characters and storylines in comparison to other streamers is glaring.