The Hulu Strategy Is Working
When the Walt Disney Company acquired Fox’s entertainment assets, few identified the real prize.
While everyone focused on the vast library of content that could anchor Disney’s streaming services, most missed the forest for the trees.
Photo: Fox
As a byproduct of snagging Fox’s goodies, Disney acquired a controlling interest in Hulu, which was the real prize all along.
At the time, then-CEO Bob Iger secured Disney’s future by adding Hulu to the empire.
Photo: Getty
Fast forward to today, and now-CEO Bob Iger is rightfully taking a victory lap. The Hulu strategy is working. Here’s how.
Why Disney Bought Hulu
Photo: Yahoo Finance
Occasionally, MickeyBlog posts updates on the protracted negotiations between Comcast and Disney.
Frankly, they’re a running joke at this point, as Disney has zero interest in resolving this matter quickly.
Filmmaker magazine
Currently, the two parties have tasked an arbitrator with determining the accurate value of Hulu.
As a reminder, Disney owned one-third of Hulu at the beginning, as did Comcast and Fox.
So, when Disney acquired Fox, it became the two-thirds owner and decision-maker for the valuable Hulu streaming service.
Outvoted anyway, Comcast backed down and agreed to let Disney run Hulu entirely, which would have happened anyway.
Photo: Deadline
However, the two parties agreed that Disney would eventually pay Comcast a lump sum at a later date five years later.
Ostensibly, that number would reflect a fair valuation of Hulu.
Since we’re discussing a lot of greedy corporate executives, they were never gonna agree on the price, though.
Also, from Disney’s perspective, they have already paid $8.1 billion to Comcast for Hulu. They’re in no hurry to pay more.
Photo: Getty
Allegedly, this dispute will end at some point in fiscal 2025, which theoretically ends at the end of September.
Will that happen? Who knows. But it speaks to how much overhead Disney has accepted as the cost of doing business for Hulu.
(Photo by JC Olivera/Getty Images)
Eight years ago, Iger entered into the Fox negotiations because he identified an opportunity to double Disney’s odds of succeeding on streaming.
Since this field is too important to ignore, Iger acquired Hulu as a fail-safe in case his other planned service, Disney+, didn’t go as planned.
(Photo by Jerod Harris/Getty Images for Vox Media)
Now, Disney is reaping the benefits of double dipping on entertainment streaming services.
Disney+ and the Hulu Tile
Photo: Disney+
When Disney added Hulu in 2019, the service claimed 22.8 million subscribers, a fantastic number for the time.
Still, that number has grown to 54.7 million subscribers as of the second quarter of 2025.
Photo: Disney+
We’re talking about exponential growth of 31.9 million subscribers in 25 quarters. That’s 1.28 million new subscribers per quarter.
One of the reasons why Hulu has sustained its growth comes down to proximity.
In December 2023 – and officially in March 2024 – Disney+ added a Hulu tile.
How important was this change? I use Hulu regularly, yet I’ve only launched Hulu app about five times since then.
Photo: THIERRY CHESNOT/GETTY IMAGES
What’s the point? I can just as easily watch the same content on Disney+, and that’s been the plan all along.
Disney has unified two different, wildly popular streaming services in a single location.
Photo: Hulu
In fact, we can throw in a third, as ESPN+ has integrated some of its content into the Disney+ app as well.
By tying all this content together, Disney has converted nearly the entirety of its Linear Networks division content onto streaming.
Photo: Walt Disney Company
None of that would have been possible without Hulu, which added stickier and decidedly more adult content to the service.
Disney has bragged about the value of the Hulu tile on several occasions, including last week during its earnings call.
Image Credit: Disney
By integrating Hulu (and parts of ESPN+), Disney+ has evolved into a must-have streaming service, one that’s affordable thanks to the Disney Bundle.
Executives note that churn, the stat that tracks streaming cancellations, has dropped dramatically since Disney+ added the Hulu tile.
Hulu banners
This is the rare example of a plan from several years ago paying benefits today and in the near future.
The success of Hulu explains why Disney happily paid billions for it.
Nielsen Streaming Ratings for the Week
Photographer: Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images
I can reinforce this point by discussing the latest streaming ratings, which cover the week of April 14th through April 20th, 2025.
Let’s just skip straight to the Hulu stuff to underscore the crucial importance of this content.
Photo: Hulu
During the week in question, the following Hulu shows charted:
- Grey’s Anatomy – 956 million viewer minutes
- NCIS – 746 million viewer minutes
- The Handmaid’s Tale – 745 million viewer minutes
- Family Guy – 711 million viewer minutes
- The Rookie – 692 million viewer minutes
- Bob’s Burgers – 633 million viewer minutes
Photo: Hulu
Without Hulu, here’s a list of the streaming programs that would have charted for Disney:
- Bluey – 907 million viewer minutes
- Moana 2 – 398 million viewer minutes
Photo: Disney
You can easily identify the discrepancy here. Consumers watch Disney+ for its deluxe level of content such as Andor, which isn’t covered yet on this chart.
Andor’s second season started on April 22nd, two days too late to count for this chart. But let’s be clear that Disney+ content isn’t performing well.
Daredevil: Born Again had ended by this point. It never charted nor did Disney post any braggy press releases down the stretch.
The show doesn’t appear to be a hit, a recurring theme on Disney+.
Photo: Disney
While Moana 2 showed renewed strength this week, increasing from last time, the overall picture for Disney+ would be bleak if not for Hulu.
Consumers are bundling the two services together but then watching Hulu content substantially more often…except for Bluey.
Photo: Disney
This seems like a good time to mention that Disney doesn’t own Bluey…but it does own Hulu. You can tell from this data how much Hulu matters.
TL:DR: the Hulu strategy is working…and better than anyone could have hoped.
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Feature Photo: THIERRY CHESNOT/GETTY IMAGES
