Hulu’s days look numbered, but there’s reason for Disney to keep it around

Bob Iger, the CEO of The Walt Disney Company, announced today that Disney will "fully integrate" Hulu into the Disney+ app in 2026. Although a company representative told Variety that people will still be able to buy standalone subscriptions to Hulu, we can't help but wonder how long that will last.

A prim and polished app combining the catalogs, recommendations, and profiles for Disney+ and Hulu subscribers could make a standalone Hulu app redundant. In fact, the ability to successfully combine those two streaming services into one platform could, depending on how executives look at it, make the entire Hulu business redundant.

Some are reporting that Iger means that the Hulu app will be phased out next year, while others are saying that the death of the Hulu app is likely but not yet guaranteed.

We asked Disney if it is phasing out the standalone Hulu app or service but didn't receive a response.

When MoffettNathanson analyst Robert Fishman asked Disney execs what the apps' integration means "for the future of Hulu as a standalone app" during an earnings call today, Iger responded, according to a transcript:

I think the way to look at the combination is to start with the consumer. You're going to end up with a far better consumer experience when those apps are combined by combining all of the program assets of both apps... And obviously with an improved consumer experience comes the ability to lower churn, which is obviously something that we're very, very focused on and committed to doing.

That's not a completely straight answer, but it does underscore the value that Disney sees in getting people to pay for access to Disney+'s and Hulu's respective libraries, and in getting people to watch all of that in the Disney+ app.

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Disney's announcement may sound familiar because it started integrating Hulu into Disney+, including with a dedicated tile, in March. People who subscribe to both Disney+ and Hulu have been able to search for and watch Hulu content within the Disney+ app since then.