Rumors Are Growing That Hulu Might Be Folded Into Disney As Restructuring Continues
Though speculation regarding Hulu’s future isn’t anything new, what is, is the news that Disney is continuing their round of pre-holiday layoffs and recent cuts have impacted ABC and Hulu as Disney continues to restructure its television and streaming operations.
This is leading many insiders to speculate that Disney is on track to discontinue and Hulu and merge it into Disney+. This move would definitely have its benefits for Disney. As a recent piece in Collider points out The Walt Disney Company would be more attractive to investors if it merged all subscribers to one streaming platform rather than having 73.7 million subscribers on Disney+ and 36.6 million on Hulu. It just makes more sense to be able to boast about having 110 million subscribers on one network.
It also narrows the competition between Disney+ and Netflix (which is still way out in front when it comes to streaming services.) Iif there’s one thing that Disney+ has shown with its better than expected growth is that it is certainly poised to give Netflix a run for its money. This is only helped by Disney’s massive IP which includes everything from Pixar to Marvel and Star Wars.
However, as the piece in Collider states, the biggest obstacle that Disney+ has to overcome in its quest to become THE biggest streaming network is the fact that the brrand may be less appealing to adults who don’t have kids and prefer more independent, non-blockbuster brands. This is one of Hulu’s strengths but whether grown-ups would leap over to Disney+ if Hulu was retired remains to be seen.
This also brings up a TON of logistical questions from how would parental controls on mature content work to what shows and movies would remain too “inappropriate” for the Disney brand. One positive that Disney has going for it in this area is that with its recent acquisition of FOX, Disney is sitting on a range of adult focused titles. A great example of this are the Die Hard films.
However, one thing that would definitely be lost were Hulu to fold is a LIVE component that allows ad-ons were people can watch not only the three major networks via Hulu but can also tune into HBO, Showtime, Starz and more. Disney has yet to announce any plans that would indicate that Disney+ would move in this direction.
Disney has an investor’s day on December 10th and we hope to hear more about streaming plans then.
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