Hulu, now wholly owned by the Walt Disney Company, will be fully integrated into the Disney+ app in 2026, although apparently it will still be possible to buy separate Hulu and Disney+ subscriptions. Both services will be on a single technology platform. Hulu will meanwhile replace the Star tile on Disney+ outside the United States. ESPN will launch as a direct-to-consumer app soon, with an initial bundle deal with Disney+ and Hulu.
Disney has run Hulu since 2019. It bought out the remaining one-third stake in Hulu owned by NBCUniversal, completing in June, paying Comcast a total of about $9 billion.
“I think the way to look at the combination is to start with the consumer. You’re going to end up with a far better consumer experience when those apps are combined,” Disney chief executive Bob Iger, told analysts. “With an improved consumer experience comes the ability to lower churn, which is something that we’re very, very focused on and committed to doing.”
“We obviously will delivery efficiencies. When these are together, they’ll be on one tech stack. We already sell the advertising together, but this will give our sales organisation a chance to package them far more effectively that they have before. I imagine down the road, it may give us some price elasticity as well that we haven’t had before.” For that read higher prices.
He went on: “We’re at a point, given the way we’re operating our businesses, where we don’t really look at being in the linear business and the streaming business. We’re in the television business. What we’re doing is we’re giving our customers or our viewers a chance to watch our programming wherever they want.”
“We are, generally speaking, as a company now operating these businesses as one. That gives us an opportunity to not only run them more efficiently, but to aggregate sub fees and advertising revenue across a very, very broad range of television distribution platforms.”
“When we gave people an opportunity to have a more seamless experience between Disney+ and Hulu, we saw engagement increasing, and we would hope that when we take this next step, which is basically full integration, that engagement will go up even more.”
Disney will no longer report subscriber numbers for Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+, following the precedent of Netflix.
At the end of June 2025, Disney+ had 127.8 million subscribers, of which 57.8 million were in the United States and Canada. Hulu had 55.5 million subscribers, of which 4.3 million were to the live television package.
The Disney ESPN business will acquire the NFL Network and other media assets controlled by the NFL in return for a 10% equity stake in EPSN.
The company is due to launch ESPN as a standalone online product on 21 August, priced at $29.99 a month. There will be a special launch offer of an Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN bundle for the same price, $29.99 a month, for the first 12 months.