In a significant move made by Disney, the company announced Wednesday that U.S. customers are getting a new app that combines Disney+ and Hulu content.
\nThe company also announced that it is raising the price of the Disney+ ad-free tier later in the year.
\nDuring Disney’s quarterly earnings call, CEO Bob Iger revealed that the new streaming option will launch later this year. However, the company also plans to keep Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ as standalone platforms.
\nThe news comes after Disney+ lost 4 million subscribers in the second quarter of 2023. Hulu gained 200,000 subs.
\n\u201cWhile we continue to offer Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ as standalone options, this is a logical progression of our [direct-to-consumer] offerings that will provide greater opportunities for advertisers while giving subscribers access to more robust and streamlined content, resulting in greater audience engagement and ultimately leading to a more unified streaming experience,\u201d Iger stated during the earnings call.
\nMany of us saw this announcement coming since former Disney CEO Bob Chapek hinted at the plans in September 2022.
\n\u201cRight now, if you want to go from Hulu to ESPN+ to Disney+, you have to go out of one app to another app. In the future, we may have less friction,\u201d Chapek told Variety in an interview last year.
\nThis also appears to support the reports that Disney is planning to buy Comcast’s stake in Hulu by 2024. Currently, Comcast owns 33% and Disney owns 66%.
\nThe integration follows other moves made by competitors, such as Paramount+ combining with Showtime, as well as Warner Bros. Discovery announcing its new streaming service, Max, which merges HBO Max and Discovery+ into one platform.
\nSubscribers in select countries outside of the U.S. already have Hulu content bundled with Disney+.
\nWhen the streamer launched its ad-supported plan in December, the cost of its premium tier went up to $10.99\/month, compared to $7.99. Disney+ will get yet another price hike for its ad-free subscription. Soon, subscribers will have to pay even more to get content with no ads.
\n\u201cThe pricing changes we’ve already implemented [have] proven successful, and we plan to set a higher price for our ad-free tier later this year to better reflect the value of our content offerings,\u201d Iger added. \u201cAs we look to the future, we will continue optimizing our pricing model to reward loyalty and reduce churn to increase subscriber revenue for the premium ad-free tier and drive growth of subscribers\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Disney+ loses subscribers for second quarter in a row, drops 4M subs<\/p>\n