Disney+ & Hulu To Launch a Combined App: What That Means For Anglophiles

Since Disney first fired the opening salvo against Netflix in 2017, announcing plans to pull all its content and create its own streaming service, expansion has been the order of the day. More single-production network streaming services, more content (both old and new), and more apps for consumers to download and pay for. How, ten years after Netflix's 2013 launch of original programming with House of Cards, the winds are now shifting. So far, 2023 has brought HBO Max and Discovery+ merging into a single app, Starz and MGM+ announcing plans to become a combined offering, and now Disney+ and Hulu following suit. All this, and the year isn't even halfway over.

However, this latest combination of content is slightly different than its predecessors. HBO Max and Discovery's parent companies only just merged in 2022, and the plan to combine them was a foregone conclusion even before the merger was complete. MGM+ only just became Amazon's to do with as it pleased after buying parent company MGM; creating an option to combine it with its Starz offering was merely a practical business choice. However, Disney has had control of the majority stake in Hulu since before Disney+ even launched, and yet it's only now seriously looking at putting them together.

To understand how we got here, a little background. Hulu was initially created as a legal way for cord-cutters to watch broadcast shows by the networks after YouTube came along and people began watching their favorite series via pirated versions on the web. ABC, NBC, and Fox each owned one-third. (CBS eschewed the deal, making its own stand-alone CBS All Access, which eventually became Paramount+.) When Disney bought out Fox in March 2019, it then owned two-thirds of Hulu, with NBC's parent company Comcast left with the remaining piece.