- Hulu will be “fully integrated” into Disney+ in 2026
- The standalone Hulu app will be shut down
- Bob Iger claims “price elasticity” will help a “better consumer experience”
Disney has reported its third quarter FY25 earnings, but it’s not the company’s figures that have made headlines, with CEO Bob Iger announcing the “full integration” of Hulu and Disney+ set for 2026. In effect, this means the standalone Hulu app will no longer exist, as the platform’s entire back catalog will be moved to Disney+, which already houses some Hulu content.
As Iger himself explained in Disney’s earnings report: “Today we are announcing a major step forward in strengthening our streaming offering by fully integrating Hulu into Disney+. This 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.”
The statement continues: “By creating a truly differentiated streaming offering, we will be providing subscribers tremendous choice, convenience, quality, and enhanced personalization. This will enhance our ability to continue to grow profitability and margins in our entertainment streaming business through expected higher engagement, lower churn, and advertising revenue potential, as well as operational efficiencies that over time may result in savings that we can reinvest back into the business.”
Of course, the first thing this makes us think of is a potential price hike, with existing Disney+ subscription plans and bundles already increasing by roughly $1-2 every year for the past three years. While no confirmed plans have been announced, Iger also hinted that “price elasticity” would be considered. While we’ve got no clear idea what that means yet, I don’t think we should be too quick to be negative.
Disney+ and Hulu’s merger might not mean a significant price hike next year
Let’s look at the existing plans as a guide. Disney did announce price increases for standalone subscriptions, Hulu and ESPN+ bundles, this time last year, but the no ads Disney+, Hulu and ESPN premium bundle remained at its regular $19.99 price point in the US. Disney+ prices in Australia went up again in February 2025, but stayed within the $1-2 increase remit that US prices saw in earlier months. But regardless of which bundles hiked the price up and which didn’t, these are all bundles… and Disney won’t be able to sell as many of those now.
Unless Disney takes more of the best streaming services around under its wing, Disney+ can only feasibly be coupled with ESPN+ and HBO Max as bundles if Hulu solely exists within the main app. We can make a pretty sure guess of this as Hulu will be outright replacing the existing Star tile within the app. As Iger explained: “Hulu will also become a global general entertainment brand, and in the fall, it will replace the Star tile on Disney+ internationally. Work is already underway to continue enhancing our technology, and over the coming months, we will be implementing numerous improvements within the Disney+ app, including exciting new features and a more personalized homepage. All of this work will culminate with the unified Disney+ and Hulu streaming app experience that will be available to consumers next year.”
The company also won’t want to lose any of its subscribers through the integration process. Disney and Hulu combined ended the third quarter on 183 million subscribers, which was up 2.6 million from the second quarter. Disney is predicting a further 10 million new subscribers for the fourth quarter, which can’t be achieved if people begin to begrudge the service for hiking up prices to accommodate a change they potentially didn’t ask for.
For now, we don’t know where this leaves subscribers financially, but let’s not panic just yet. Disney hasn’t given any reason for us to absorb another price increase – if anything, there are fewer reasons for that to be the case. Disney will be launching a new ESPN standalone streaming service on August 21st (that will be separate to ESPN+), which might give us a clearer idea on where prices are heading.
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