Hulu Content Is Coming to Disney+ for ‘One-App Experience’

Disney will soon be incorporating Hulu content on Disney+ in the U.S. said CEO Bob Iger, describing the move toward “a one-app experience” for investors on the company’s quarterly earnings call this week. Iger also confirmed discussions about Hulu’s future with Comcast, which holds a 33 percent stake in the Disney-owned streamer. “Where we are headed is for one experience that would have general entertainment and Disney+ content together,” Iger told investors. “How that ultimately unfolds is to some extent in the hands of Comcast.”

Iger added that the Disney streaming platforms, including ESPN+, will continue to be made available as individual subscriptions, but said the one-app approach will provide a convenient option for consumers and enhance advertising opportunities across the streaming ecosystem, not unlike what NBCUniversal has done with Spotlight+ and its One Platform stack.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Iger began Wednesday’s investor call for Disney’s fiscal Q2 “with an unusual introductory statement: He congratulated Disney rival Universal Pictures, a division of Comcast, for the box office success of ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie,’ which recently surpassed $1.16 billion in total ticket sales” to become the fifth-highest grossing animated film worldwide.

Disney’s majority stake in Hulu is a vestige of the studio’s 2019 purchase of 21st Century Fox entertainment, which doubled its one-third stake to 66 percent. “Under an agreement reached that same year, both Disney and Comcast have the right to force a sale of Comcast’s stake at fair-market value, starting in 2024, with a floor valuation of $27.5 billion for the whole service,” WSJ writes.

A recent iSpot survey quizzing advertisers on how they planned to spend their Upfront digital dollars found Hulu was the top choice, at 74 percent, followed by YouTube TV at 48 percent. Hulu launched as an ad-supported service in 2008; Disney+ began offering an ad-supported option this year.

Iger also shared plans “to raise the price of the regular Disney+ tier without ads (currently $10.99/month on a standalone basis) in order to ‘widen the delta’ relative to the ad-supported plan ($7.99/month),” Variety reports, noting Disney increased the price of its premium tier by $3 in December.

“We plan to set a higher price for [the Disney+] ad-free tier later this year to better reflect the value of our content offerings,” Iger said, per Variety.

CNBC reports “Disney will begin to roll out the one-app offering by the end of the calendar year, and Iger said the company would share further details at a later time.”

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