Disney+ will unhinge its jaw and swallow Hulu in 2026
It’s almost the end of the road for Hulu as a standalone app. Now that it fully owns Hulu, Disney will entirely integrate the streaming service into Disney+. It will roll out a new, unified app next year.
This doesn’t necessarily mean that the price of a Disney+ subscription is going to skyrocket in 2026. A Disney spokesperson told Variety the company will still offer standalone plans for Disney+ and Hulu.
Disney CEO Bob Igor said on an earnings call that having Disney+ and Hulu on the same tech platform should help the company reduce costs and provide it with more ways to package ad sales. For users, Iger said the unified app will offer an “improved consumer experience.” Iger and Disney CFO Hugh Johnston said merging the services “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." Disney+ is also slated to get a more personalized homepage and other new features in the coming months.
There will be a notable change for Disney+ users outside of the US as well. Disney will rebrand the Star tile in the app to Hulu starting this fall.
Disney has been nudging its streaming services more closely together for a while. Last year, it integrated Hulu content into Disney+ in the hopes of getting more people to pay for a bundle that includes the two services.
On top of all that, Disney says it will soon (for the most part) stop disclosing subscriber numbers for Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+, following the likes of Netflix in taking such a step. Between them, Disney+ and Hulu had 183 million subscribers at the end of June, up 2.6 million from the end of March. Meanwhile, the new ESPN streaming service is set to debut on August 21.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/disney-will-unhinge-its-jaw-and-swallow-hulu-in-2026-144458503.html?src=rss
