Disney+ Absorbing Hulu, App to be Phased Out

The move will be finalized in 2026.

Disney+ has been, by all accounts, nowhere near the success that Disney hoped and needed for it to be. The streaming service currently has 128 million subscribers globally, which is nothing to sneeze at, but pales in comparison to Netflix's 301.6 million. In the company's continued efforts to bolster numbers and appease shareholders, it has been announced that Disney will be sunsetting the Hulu app and fully integrating the service into Disney+.

This is the culmination of years of maneuvering on the part of Disney. The company finalized its purchase of NBCUniversal's portion of Hulu in June, forking over the final $438.7 million of a whopping $9 billion deal (NBCUniversal had originally been seeking $13 billion for its 33% stake). Now, Disney can begin to fully utilize the Hulu catalogue and brand in an effort to grow Disney+'s subscriber base.

Interestingly, while this move will surely see a spike in Disney+ subscriber numbers, Disney has also revealed that it will no longer be reporting this statistic to the public. Disney alleges the change is because these metrics are "less meaningful to evaluating the performance of our businesses." Of course, the numbers will continue to be tracked internally, so one might argue that this is more for optics than any change in significance. Regardless, with Hulu being folded into Disney+, the hope for the company is likely boosted ad revenue, more subscribers, and greater market penetration.

Disney is expected to fully phase out the Hulu app by 2026. The company will unify all content under the Disney+ app and offer dual and individual subscriptions for Disney+ and Hulu.

Source: That Park Place + Variety