The Hulu streaming service may fold entirely into Disney+ judging by new reports. A Business Insider report claims the House of Mouse is working on a “multi-phased” scheme to move Hulu’s content over to the Disney+ app and then drop the Hulu app altogether.
The report cites word from Disney employees, as well leaked internal documents claiming “the Hulu tech stack and app will be decommissioned after all users have transitioned.”
That would make a good deal of sense, considering Disney owns both platforms and much of the content is already available within the Disney+ application for bundle subscribers. The Disney+ app also enables users to sync their Hulu watchlists, so the traffic is definitely moving in that direction.
The Hulu app remains the portal for the Hulu with Live TV streaming platform, so the next stage may be to integrate that within the Disney+ app.
Either way, it’ll be significant to see Hulu fall by the wayside. In the United States, Hulu was a streaming pioneer. Co-owned by the major free-to-air TV networks in the US, it was among the first to offer on-demand television over the internet enabling viewers to catch up via a laptop rather than requiring a DVR.
Disney gained control of Hulu seven years ago as part of the deal to acquire 20th Century Fox. The bigger change came in June last year when Disney bought out Comcast’s remaining stake. Disney had been closely associated with Hulu since the earliest days via it’s ownership of the ABC television network in the United States, which screened catch-up content via Hulu.
As recently as last month, Disney said it had “no current plans to sunset the Hulu app”, but things can change.
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