Get ready to see “The Kardashians” standing next to Baby Yoda on your Disney+ home screen.
Beginning Dec. 6, the significant majority of Hulu content will be available on Disney+ in the U.S. for subscribers of both services. It’s phase one of the Disney+/Hulu integration plan, first outlined by CEO Bob Iger earlier this year. The initial “beta” of Hulu on Disney+ will be followed by the launch of a more integrated version in March 2024.
Disney’s expectation is that by mixing Hulu programming into Disney+, customers will spend more time overall watching stuff — thereby cutting churn and customer-acquisition costs, as Iger said on the company’s earnings call last month. Next year, the Mouse House intends to begin promoting Disney+/Hulu bundles more aggressively.
A priority for Disney with the beta launch is to give Disney+ subscribers with kids time to familiarize themselves with the service’s parental controls, given that Hulu’s lineup includes shows with mature themes and F-bombs like FX drama “The Bear,” Ryan Murphy’s “American Horror Story” franchise, reality show “The Kardashians,” and the award-winning “A Handmaid’s Tale.” (Watch a video below from Disney+ about parental controls.)
However, Hulu subscribers with Disney+ probably won’t want to delete their Hulu apps just yet. For starters, certain licensing-rights restrictions will keep some Hulu titles off Disney+ (both for the beta and the full launch next March). Those include ABC’s hit sitcom “Modern Family” and ITV’s reality dating show “Love Island.” In addition, Disney+ will not provide access to the linear channels in the Hulu + Live TV virtual pay-TV package. For the foreseeable future, those will remain available only through Hulu’s family of apps.
Another limitation in the beta: If you’re watching a show from Hulu on Disney+, the Hulu app won’t track your viewing — so, for example, if you start “only Murders in the Building” in one app, the other won’t know where you left off. Disney hopes to sync that up with the March 2024 release.
Longer term, Disney plans to also add the ability for customers of both services to watch Disney+ programming in Hulu’s app. But today there’s no timeline for when that will happen.
With the beta rollout this week, Hulu on Disney+ will automatically appear for subscribers who are using the same email address for their accounts on each service; bundle subscribers can contact Disney+ customer service to link their Hulu account if they have a different email.
For bundle subscribers, a Hulu tile will appear on the Disney+ home screen, which will lead to the “Hulu hub” with movies, TV series and originals for playback within Disney+. Hulu content will appear in the Hulu hub, the carousel on the Disney+ home screen, as well as the watchlist, continue watching row and via search. The Hulu hub on Disney+ also will include sections for content from TV networks including ABC, FX, Freeform, A&E, MTV, Nickelodeon, History and more.
The second phase of Hulu on Disney+ in March 2024 will add full integration of Hulu content onto Disney+ home page, with personalized recommendations, curated collections and increased visibility of Hulu content throughout the interface. At that point, Disney also plans to try to upsell Disney+ subs who do not have Hulu to subscribe to both.
Hulu boasts an on-demand lineup of more than 70,000 TV episodes and movies, including series “only Murders in the Building,” “The Bear,” “The Kardashians,” “Futurama” and “Abbott Elementary,” as well as original films like “Vacation Friends 2,” “No One Will Save You” and “Fresh.” The service recently added full series runs of older TV hits “New Girl,” “Moonlighting” and “Who’s the Boss.”
Meanwhile, Disney is still in the midst of closing a deal with Comcast to acquire full ownership of Hulu. The company this month paid $8.61 billion to Comcast, which holds a 33% stake in Hulu. The final price tag — which could be much higher — will be based on an assessment of Hulu’s market value as of Sept. 30 by each side’s bankers. For now, Disney has no plans to launch Hulu as a brand outside the U.S. even after it gains 100% ownership.
Watch Disney+’s new video about how to set up parental controls, now that adult-rated content from Hulu is available on the service:
And here’s a promo spot for the beta launch of Hulu on Disney+:
