After acquiring full control of Hulu from Comcast in June, Disney will integrate the streaming service into Disney+ and next year, plans to launch a unified
Disney+ and Hulu streaming app experience.
As part of the integration, Hulu will replace the Star tile on Disney+ in international markets starting in the fall. Work is also underway to make various technical improvements in the Disney+ app, including new features and a more personalized home page.
The move will more fully bring together two streaming services at a time when the competition has gotten tougher with consumers looking to reduce their monthly subscriptions. By pairing Disney’s more family-friendly content with Hulu’s more general-age entertainment, the company hopes to offer a single offering that better stands against the vast libraries offered by the likes of Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery’s HBO Max.
“This will enhance our ability to continue to grow profitability and margins in our entertainment streaming business through expected higher engagement, lower churn, and advertising revenue potential, as well as operational efficiencies that over time may result in savings that we can reinvest back into the business,” Disney CEO Bob Iger and CFO Hugh Johnston said in an executive commentary along with its third quarter earnings for fiscal 2025.
The comments also throws into question the fate of Hulu itself. Iger declined to say whether the Hulu standalone app would be phased out when asked by Wall Street during the company’s third quarter earnings call. A Disney spokesperson did not immediately return TheWrap’s request for comment.
Looking ahead, Disney expects to add more than 10 million subscribers in the fiscal fourth quarter, with the majority of the increase coming from Hulu as a result of its expanded deal with Charter Communications. Disney+ subscribers are expected to see a modest increase from the third quarter.
In its third quarter of 2025, Disney+ added 1.8 million subscribers for a total of 127.8 million — all of that growth driven by international markets — while Hulu added 800,000 subscribers for a total of 55.5 million. The services swung to a combined streaming profit of $346 million, compared to a loss of $19 million in the year-ago period, and saw revenue grow 6% to $6.2 billion, driven by price increases and subscriber growth.
When combined with ESPN+’s 24.1 million subscribers, the three services totaled 207.4 million subscribers. Disney did not break out whether ESPN+ posted a profit or loss in the quarter.
Iger also talked about the upcoming launch of the ESPN streaming service on Aug. 21, and said a package that includes Disney+, Hulu and ESPN would be “tremendous bundling experience” for subscribers.
Disney+ and Hulu will also stop reporting subscriber and average revenue per user figures starting in the first quarter of fiscal 2026, while ESPN+ will stop in the fiscal fourth quarter of 2025.
