By: Nick Gambino
Well, it’s been a long time coming, but Hulu is finally being shut down. Or rather, it’s being fully integrated into the Disney+ platform and will no longer have a standalone Hulu app.
The writing was on the wall for quite a while now, ever since Disney acquired a majority stake in Hulu after buying 20th Century Fox in 2019.
Hulu started as a joint venture between multiple studios in 2007. This was prior to the huge streaming boom. At the time, YouTube had proven that streaming video content was the future and everyone wanted in, but it was only in its nascent stage.
Netflix was still only streaming licensed content, Crackle (RIP) was trying to make a run of it with Jerry Seinfeld’s Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, their only real hit, and Hulu was known as next-day TV.
Hulu was a partnership between FOX and NBCUniversal. It’s where you could go to watch an NBC show like The Office or a FOX show like Family Guy without having to rent or purchase an episode or season. In fact, Hulu started out free with ads.
Over time they added a paid plan that was ad-free and other studios like Disney got a piece of the pie. In 2019, Disney acquired FOX and gained control of 75% of the company, leaving NBCUniversal as the sole David against Goliath, but in this story there was no way they were going to defeat the behemoth.
They struck a deal to immediately relinquish full control of Hulu to Disney and sell their portion of the company to the Mouse House in 2023. In the end, Disney bought NBCUniversal out of their share of Hulu for about $9 billion.
And now, less than two years later, Disney has decided to end Hulu as a standalone service and fully integrate it into Disney+ in 2026. Supposedly, they will maintain a section of their platform dedicated to Hulu, but I don’t know how long they’ll keep this up or how much it really matters.
I’m sure a big concern has been how to integrate more adult content into Disney+, a brand that is known for family-friendly fare. But Disney seems to have made their peace with that over the past year or so, adding Hulu and other decidedly adult content right into their app.
This move will save Disney a lot of money as they won’t have to support two large streaming services where there are many duplicative functions. Hulu apparently commands $7 billion in programming and non-programming expenses a year and that’s only expected to increase.
Subscribers will also save money as they won’t have to support two subscriptions even if they get a discount on bundles. I would expect Disney+ plans to go up, but they’re still one of the cheaper streamers out there.
You can get a Disney+ monthly plan for as little as $9.99 a month (with ads) or $15.99 a month (without ads). This is even cheaper if you go for the annual plan. Bundled with Hulu it’s only $10.99 a month (with ads) and $19.99 (without ads).
I’d expect the new Disney+ price to be somewhere between the two. If they keep producing as much content as Hulu did but just include them in Disney+, then this is technically a better deal. For those looking for a cheaper alternative, the Roku Howdy streaming service remains an option.
