Tim
In what can be labeled as an expected move, Disney announced during its Q2 earnings call this week that its intentions are to consolidate its streaming services, Disney+ and Hulu, into a single app for the convenience of users. What’s surprising is the timing of it all. Disney wants this work to be completed by 2024, which means subscribers to these platforms are in for big change pretty soon.
Consolidation in this form isn’t new. We have been talking about HBO MAX and Discovery+’s consolidation into Max for a bit now. However, the combining of platforms at this scale seems like a massive undertaking. Hulu and Disney+ are two of the larger streaming services, both with millions of subscribers, so thoughts immediately go to the migration experience of the users. All we can hope is that it’s smooth.
While all of the content will be under a single roof, Disney’s Bob Igor notes that individual subscriptions to the services, those being Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+, can still be purchased separately. The only real change is that instead of having three different apps, there will be a single login.
There is no word yet on any sort of pricing change for when this all takes place.
The news that individual subscriptions will still be available is the biggest takeaway here. The idea that users won’t need to be paying for something they don’t want remains intact, though, lines are beginning to blur. Just because a company thinks that giving people additional content free of charge is cool, like we saw with Discovery+’s content moving to HBO MAX, doesn’t make it the truth. Additionally, we have to hope Disney hires the best app developers to ensure that the app that houses all of this content is fantastic. I don’t know if anyone uses the Hulu app on a regular basis, but it’s absolutely garbage on my SHIELD TV. Rant over.
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