Disney should kill standalone Disney+
Disney+ is certainly one of the biggest success stories in the streaming wars. After launching in 2019 it has grown from 10 million subscribers (who signed up in just one day) to around 150 million today. That meteoric rise was driven by big budget Marvel and Star Wars series as well as kids fare like Bluey, but now that growth has plateaued because of the service’s limited appeal outside of its core fan bases.
This is why the House of Mouse is making a big push for the Disney+/Hulu bundle. Disney+ has the IP that brings fans in, but Hulu has the volume to keep them watching. Non-bundle subscribers may cancel in the months between Echo and The Acolyte, however bundle subscribers will keep paying to watch Shogun.
In order for Disney+ to really take on Netflix, far and away streaming’s biggest success (260 million subscribers!), it needs Hulu’s virtually bottomless supply of procedurals, sitcoms and reality that are lower cost and have broader appeal, especially for viewers who are looking for mindless laundry-folding fare. In addition Hulu offers FX’s more adult-skewing prestige content (The Bear, Fargo) which goes toe to toe with HBO and Max.
So the next logical step is to redefine Disney+ as a service that includes both traditional Disney and Hulu content. This also has the benefit of reducing the confusing array of bundles for consumers to choose from. Eventually Hulu should be killed as a standalone product as well, if nothing else to eliminate the infrastructure and marketing costs of running it as a separate service.
Just be sure that you have your kids’ Disney+ profiles configured with the right age restrictions, otherwise your 8-year-old may stumble upon Poor Things and have a lot of questions about “furious jumping.”
