Disney+ and Hulu are Merging
Disney will offer a combination of the Disney+ and Hulu apps by the end of the year, according to CEO Bob Iger on the second quarter fiscal earnings call. The apps will remain available as-is. There will be a price increase. Additionally, some content will be removed from Disney+, presumably to migrate to a free ad-supported streaming service. This is happening amid Disney+ losing 4 million subscribers in the first quarter of 2023, following a loss of 2.4 million subscribers in the final quarter of 2022. Check out a statement from chief financial officer Christine McCarthy here:
“We will be removing certain content from our streaming platforms and currently expect to take an impairment charge of approximately $1.5 to $1.8 billion.”
I don’t know much about streaming service profitability or the stock market. All I know is some of this doesn’t sound that great for the customer, like price hikes and content removal. I have the Disney+/Hulu/ESPN+ bundle, and I’ll probably keep it that way unless the combo app is a better deal, but it doesn’t sound like that will be the case. It’s wild watching a major corporation like Disney struggle to make a profit when the obvious solution is to make content people like. I’m a fan of a lot of Disney content, but the Marvel TV shows have been trash, and Strange World was pretty lame.
But what do you think? Talk to us in the comments below!
