Say CIAO is a standalone Hulu streaming app: Disney says it is “fully integrated” with Hulu services, and now it has 100% flagship Disney+ streaming.
The company said it will offer a new “unified” Disney+ and Hulu streaming apps in 2026. According to Disney representatives, customers can still purchase independent Hulu subscriptions (as well as independent Disney+ plans).
“Today, we announced a big step by fully integrating Hulu into Disney+,” CEO Bob Iger and CFO Hugh Johnston said in Media Giant Quarterly Earnings. “This will create an impressive entertainment package that will make up the highest brands and franchises, great general entertainment, family shows, news and industry-leading live sports content.”
Iger said on the revenue call that a single Disney+ app with Hulu would offer an “improved consumer experience” that would reduce churn. Both services will be “on a technology platform”, Iger said, which will lead to cost synergy. Additionally, Disney has already sold ads for Disney+ and Hulu – seeing new opportunities to sell through a complete merger of ad sales, he said.
“By creating truly differentiated streams to offer products, we will provide subscribers with tremendous choice, convenience, quality and enhanced personalization. This will enhance our ability to continue to grow entertainment and profitability in the stream of entertainment, which will lower the expected salary and can make our business lower, and can make our business more and more, and can allow us to continue to be outdated, which can make the scope of the business more stable in business.”
In addition, Hulu will become a global general entertainment brand: starting in the fall of 2025, it will replace Star Tile on Disney+ internationally.
“The work has been continuing to enhance our technology and over the next few months we will implement a lot of improvements in the Disney+ app, including exciting new features and a more personalized homepage,” said Eagle and Johnston.
Meanwhile, Hulu's live TV business will be merged into Fubo in a Disney-owned joint venture. Hulu+ Live TV and Fubo brands will remain sold separately and sold. Disney representatives confirmed that Hulu+ live TV will eventually be integrated into Disney+ sometime in 2026.
After two years of negotiations with Disney, Disney+ has completely sewned Hulu's move to end the deal with Comcast to buy NBCuniversal's purchase of one-third of Hulu's shares in June 2025. Disney paid Comcast for a total of about $96.1 billion, including $86.1 billion in November 2023, and $86.1 billion in June. Comcast has been seeking more than $13 billion in Hulu shares; the final price tag is determined by arbitration by third-party bankers.
Disney has taken steps to integrate Hulu and Disney+. In spring 2024, the Disney+ app launched a “full” integration of Hulu content, which the company uses as a way to convert independent Disney+ customers into bundled Disney+/Hulu Subs.
Also on Wednesday, Disney announced it would no longer report streaming numbers for Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+, and be led by Netflix and others.
Additionally, the company will set the release date for its ESPN standalone streaming product on August 21, at a price of $29.99 per month.
Related: Disney's move to merge Hulu to Disney+ can save companies billions of dollars