Disney's Streaming Services: Disney+ (and Hulu, ESPN+, Star, & hotstar)

[Elijah Abrams]

Remember that Iger and Chapek had different views on Hulu and D+. Whether that effects the potential merge you see happening is anyones guess, but Iger has made it very well known his views on this while he wasn't CEO.

I forgot what the different views were. Can you please elaborate for me?

 

[doctornick]

I forgot what the different views were. Can you please elaborate for me?

When Disney+ was being planned/ was launched, Iger specifically indicated that D+ would be family friendly programming only. But it was under Iger IIRC that they launched D+ with Star in other countries and so the company already seemed to pivot to be willing to offer a service that was more diverse including stuff requiring parental locks. Also it’s not clear if the up in the air situation with Hulu at the time played a role in the public statements.

 

[MisterPenguin]

When Disney+ was being planned/ was launched, Iger specifically indicated that D+ would be family friendly programming only. But it was under Iger IIRC that they launched D+ with Star in other countries and so the company already seemed to pivot to be willing to offer a service that was more diverse including stuff requiring parental locks. Also it’s not clear if the up in the air situation with Hulu at the time played a role in the public statements.

Indeed. Both Bobs express genuine surprise that up to 60% of D+ subs are from households with no children (i.e., adults). And those adult subs keep giving feedback that they want more adult content.

And each time they added content that was more 'adult,' they didn't get a backlash for doing so. And so they put on even more adult content... and no backlash. To their surprise and mine.

And so, the market has spoken. D+ is "four quadrant." [boys, girls, men, women]

Some may be dismayed, but it hasn't resulted in devastating churn.

 

[MarvelCharacterNerd]

I agree, which is why they are still spending money on content it'll just be less money. Which will likely lead to production costs being slashed.


So did you only re-up for Disney movies? Are you not interested in any of their series that come out weekly?

Overall while churn is an issue I think a majority of D+ subs for the most part remain for more than a few movies that come out on the service.

Also in 2024 when Hulu and D+ merge into a single service (just like D+ and Star outside the US) you'll have a lot more content at your finger tips.

I re-upped for new Marvel content and for Mando and I'll want to see the rest of Andor whenever that eventually comes out. I didn't realize how long a break there would be after the Guardians Holiday Special - oh, I watched that too since I re-upped, so that's three things - until there was something new Marvel to watch.

I own all the older Disney and Marvel movies on blu-ray already and they've still not added all the classic Disney content that would interest me. The only things currently on my watchlist are shows I've already seen and may opt to rewatch if I run out of other content elsewhere to watch. As I said, I'm realizing now I should have just dropped the service and added for a month or two when new seasons of shows come out. I'll know better for next time.

 

[_caleb]

I re-upped for new Marvel content and for Mando and I'll want to see the rest of Andor whenever that eventually comes out. I didn't realize how long a break there would be after the Guardians Holiday Special - oh, I watched that too since I re-upped, so that's three things - until there was something new Marvel to watch.

I own all the older Disney and Marvel movies on blu-ray already and they've still not added all the classic Disney content that would interest me. The only things currently on my watchlist are shows I've already seen and may opt to rewatch if I run out of other content elsewhere to watch. As I said, I'm realizing now I should have just dropped the service and added for a month or two when new seasons of shows come out. I'll know better for next time.

What classic stuff are you interested in that isn’t on Disney+?

 

[Elijah Abrams]

Indeed. Both Bobs express genuine surprise that up to 60% of D+ subs are from households with no children (i.e., adults). And those adult subs keep giving feedback that they want more adult content.

And each time they added content that was more 'adult,' they didn't get a backlash for doing so. And so they put on even more adult content... and no backlash. To their surprise and mine.

And so, the market has spoken. D+ is "four quadrant." [boys, girls, men, women]

Some may be dismayed, but it hasn't resulted in devastating churn.

Then that means Disney wouldn’t need Hulu in order to expand D+.

 

[Disney Irish]

Then that means Disney wouldn’t need Hulu in order to expand D+.

What makes you say that?

The point is that Hulu will likely become a tile in D+ just like Star is outside the US. So yes they still need Hulu, it just won’t be a separate service with a separate app anymore.

 

[Elijah Abrams]

What makes you say that?

The point is that Hulu will likely become a tile in D+ just like Star is outside the US. So yes they still need Hulu, it just won’t be a separate service with a separate app anymore.

But then they will shut Hulu down forever, and I don’t want to see that happen.

 

[Disney Irish]

But then they will shut Hulu down forever, and I don’t want to see that happen.

Again what makes you say that? Is NatGeo shutdown just because it is part of D+? Is Pixar shutdown just because it is part of D+?

The idea is that Hulu (or renamed if they go that route) will still be around as a tile in D+, just like Star is outside the US. It just won't be a separate service requiring its own app or subscription. It'll just be part of D+, again like Star is outside the US.

So no Hulu won't be shutdown forever when this happens.

 

[Elijah Abrams]

Again what makes you say that? Is NatGeo shutdown just because it is part of D+? Is Pixar shutdown just because it is part of D+?

The idea is that Hulu (or renamed if they go that route) will still be around as a tile in D+, just like Star is outside the US. It just won't be a separate service requiring its own app or subscription. It'll just be part of D+, again like Star is outside the US.

So no Hulu won't be shutdown forever when this happens.

What you are saying is making it feel like Hulu will, as a streaming service, be gone because of Disney buying all of its ownership. I feel like Comcast should buy all of Hulu, so they can replace Peacock, which feels lackluster.

 

[Disney Irish]

What you are saying is making it feel like Hulu will, as a streaming service, be gone because of Disney buying all of its ownership. I feel like Comcast should buy all of Hulu, so they can replace Peacock, which feels lackluster.

So if you want to get real technical, in the scenario that has been discussed, Hulu as a separate streaming service would go away. It would become part of the D+ streaming service. Again this is exactly what happened with Star outside the US. Star was a separate streaming service outside of the US, similar to Hulu, which Disney acquired as part of the 21st Century deal. They didn't shut it down, they just merged it into D+ to make D+ stronger outside of the US. So now you access Star through the D+ instead of through a separate app and subscription. The same is likely to happen with Hulu in 2024/2025. It won't be shutdown, it'll just become part of D+, making D+ stronger in the US. So Hulu and its content will still be available, it'll just be accessed through D+.

 

[Elijah Abrams]

So if you want to get real technical, in the scenario that has been discussed, Hulu as a separate streaming service would go away. It would become part of the D+ streaming service. Again this is exactly what happened with Star outside the US. Star was a separate streaming service outside of the US, similar to Hulu, which Disney acquired as part of the 21st Century deal. They didn't shut it down, they just merged it into D+ to make D+ stronger outside of the US. So now you access Star through the D+ instead of through a separate app and subscription. The same is likely to happen with Hulu in 2024/2025. It won't be shutdown, it'll just become part of D+, making D+ stronger in the US. So Hulu and its content will still be available, it'll just be accessed through D+.

But they would also shut down Hulu's Live TV operation like PS Vue. That would be a step back for vMVPDs, which are trying to extend the life of cable channels like Nickelodeon. Comcast owning Hulu would be a benefit to them and offer Hulu free to Xfinity subscribers as a way for them to watch live cable TV on the go.

 

[Disney Irish]

But they would also shut down Hulu's Live TV operation like PS Vue. That would be a step back for vMVPDs.

Again why are you making this assumption? Also I believe we've been over this in other threads.

D+ is already doing Live TV with Dancing with the Stars and the recent Elton John broadcast. So there is no indication they would shutdown this feature of Hulu when it merges in with D+. They would likely introduce a higher tier which would include the Hulu/D+ Live TV feature, again making D+ stronger.

 

[Elijah Abrams]

Again why are you making this assumption? Also I believe we've been over this in other threads.

D+ is already doing Live TV with Dancing with the Stars and the recent Elton John broadcast. So there is no indication they would shutdown this feature of Hulu when it merges in with D+. They would likely introduce a higher tier which would include the Hulu/D+ Live TV feature, again making D+ stronger.

I'd rather have D+ be the family-oriented streamer Iger had originally conceived, not a four-quadrant one like Netflix, which was Chapek's idea. D+ also needs to get rid of the adult content it already has on the US version, which was also Chapek's idea.

 

[Disney Irish]

I'd rather have D+ be the family-oriented streamer Iger had originally conceived, not a four-quadrant one like Netflix, which was Chapek's idea. D+ also needs to get rid of the adult content it already has on the US version, which was also Chapek's idea.

Well since there doesn't appear to be much if any backlash, ie subs dropping, since they introduced the more mature content on D+ in the US I think the market has spoken that its ok.

And no this wasn't all Chapek's idea as rumors of parental controls and mature content coming to D+ started while Iger was still around.

 

[Elijah Abrams]

Well since there doesn't appear to be much if any backlash, ie subs dropping, since they introduced the more mature content on D+ in the US I think the market has spoken that its ok.

And no this wasn't all Chapek's idea as rumors of parental controls and mature content coming to D+ started while Iger was still around.

Oh. So wouldn’t Disney+ have to change its interfaces to look like Hulu's? That could be a good option for D+ going forward. However, I think we should see what Iger does with the company in 2023 before we make conclusions, since he just came back.

 

[doctornick]

Oh. So wouldn’t Disney+ have to change its interfaces to look like Hulu's? That could be a good option for D+ going forward. However, I think we should see what Iger does with the company in 2023 before we make conclusions, since he just came back.

Ugh. I much prefer Disney+’s interface compared to Hulu.

Anyway, all this is conjecture as to what “will happen” when Disney buys all of Hulu. I think the Live TV aspect makes it not intuitive as to how they will handle things. If they put Hulu (or rebrand it as Star in the US) content under D+, they could still sell the Live TV service separately and I think they would potentially do so. Disney being in the cable channel business certainly has a stake in continuing that type of channel subscription model going on and Live TV Hulu is actually profitable IIRC.

 

[Disney Irish]

Oh. So wouldn’t Disney+ have to change its interfaces to look like Hulu's? That could be a good option for D+ going forward. However, I think we should see what Iger does with the company in 2023 before we make conclusions, since he just came back.

No, why would they need to change the interface? Hulu's interface is not any better than D+. Also again I reference Star, Disney already has a interface that allows Star to be one of the tiles in its interface. The same would be done for Hulu if this does indeed happen.

I think its safe bet, basically almost guaranted at this point, that Hulu is being fully bought by Disney in 2024, as Iger is the one who set that up as part of the 21st Century acquisition. And Disney has said the same. So it wouldn't make sense to change course on that now. I also think its a pretty safe bet what Disney will do with Hulu given what we've seen them do with Star outside the US. As again Star is essentially Hulu outside the US. So it wouldn't make sense to keep the services separate when they have a viable working model of combined services outside the US.

So while I can't predict the future, as things always are changing, the writing has been on the wall for awhile now what Disney will do with Hulu.

 

[Disney Irish]

Ugh. I much prefer Disney+’s interface compared to Hulu.

Anyway, all this is conjecture as to what “will happen” when Disney buys all of Hulu. I think the Live TV aspect makes it not intuitive as to how they will handle things. If they put Hulu (or rebrand it as Star in the US) content under D+, they could still sell the Live TV service separately and I think they would potentially do so. Disney being in the cable channel business certainly has a stake in continuing that type of channel subscription model going on and Live TV Hulu is actually profitable IIRC.

You're right it is mostly conjecture, but its not completely without evidence. All you have to do is look at how D+ is being shaped today and you can see what is likely to happen.

As for the Live TV, I don't see it as a separate service, but rather just another tier. Basically the same model as Hulu has today. You want Live TV ok, you pay for the higher tier and it unlocks the Live TV feature in D+. And it make it easier, it'll probably just be another tile in the interface.

 

[J4546]

I could see Hulu renamed to Star or DisneyStar or something of that nature. Maybe even making multitiered pricing system with Disney+ and Disney+Star or something I dunno but Id be willing to bet Hulu turns into Star instead of Vice Versa