Disney is Nixing the Standalone Hulu App

[Biro]

Then subscribe to Hulu only 🤦🏻 Disney has confirmed that you can still subscribe to the individual services after the merger is completed. You don't havw to subscribe to both....you're just using one app. I don't understand how hard that is for you people to understand. Just like they have confirmed that Hulu Live TV will be coming to Disney+ next year.

I understand just fine. Go back and read my post again. I was expressing concern about the very likely chances that Disney will try to encourage us to subscribe to both my making subscribing to one financially unattractive. Such a strategy would be a classic “en********ation” move. Perhaps it is you that is having comprehension issues.

 

[AAPLbuyback]

Disney is probably the worst managed company in the Dow.

 

[Edd70]

Are they going to separate the content of each platform within the app? Sounds strange with the article mentioning you will still be able to subscribe to each service individually.

When HBO became Max and they dropped all the garbage content onto it I’ll never forget scrolling and seeing Milf Manor right next to The Wire.

 

[voodoo111]

Disney is out of its mind if it thinks the D+ brand is more valuable than Hulu.
Looks like I’ll be cancelling another streaming subscription shortly.

Absolutely spot on! Disney's original content in D+ as a standalone app, has never made a profit. It is in fact, billions in the hole. Disney has constantly pushed D+ down the consumers throat. The only reason it ever 'seemed' profitable, a sleight of hand from Disney, was because of Hulu. Hulu was very profitable, thanks to shows like Only Murders in the Building, among others. Every earnings call, Disney included Hulu earnings, never mind they still needed to pay Comcast (if memory serves me correctly) an extra $4 billion for it. And never mind that Avatar (which again Disney claims as a part of 20th Century) has nothing to do with Disney as it is fully, a James Cameron production. He will not allow Disney to meddle with it. The only thing Disney has claim to, is its distribution rights.

 

[voodoo111]

Yeah... how dare they think the name DISNEY isn't as valuable as Hulu. They must be out of their minds to think that the name DISNEY is known anywhere in the world, being only the 7th most valuable brand on the planet. What a fumble. What has DISNEY ever done? That's right, nothing. Hulu is totally more valuable given its reach in only the US and Japan. Terrible move.

Whilst that is true, with regards to the value of Disney's name, don't forget that D+ is billions in the hole, with its original content. It never made a profit. Hulu on the other hand, was very very profitable, hence why Disney bought it. Disney has constantly pushed D+ down the consumers throat. The only reason it ever 'seemed' profitable, a sleight of hand from Disney, was because of Hulu. Every earnings call, Disney included Hulu earnings, never mind they still needed to pay Comcast (if memory serves me correctly) an extra $4 billion for it. Lets also not forget that Avatar (which again Disney claims as a part of 20th Century) has nothing to do with Disney as it is fully, a James Cameron production. He will not allow Disney to meddle with it. The only thing Disney has claim to, is its distribution rights.

 

[BuffaloTF]

Whilst that is true, with regards to the value of Disney's name, don't forget that D+ is billions in the hole, with its original content. It never made a profit. Hulu on the other hand, was very very profitable, hence why Disney bought it. Disney has constantly pushed D+ down the consumers throat. The only reason it ever 'seemed' profitable, a sleight of hand from Disney, was because of Hulu. Every earnings call, Disney included Hulu earnings, never mind they still needed to pay Comcast (if memory serves me correctly) an extra $4 billion for it. Lets also not forget that Avatar (which again Disney claims as a part of 20th Century) has nothing to do with Disney as it is fully, a James Cameron production. He will not allow Disney to meddle with it. The only thing Disney has claim to, is its distribution rights.

Disney+ has been profitable for the past couple years… and all streaming services start in the red. And through the quarters of the 2025 FY that number has skyrocketed.

Hulu was never profitable, it’s why they got everyone but Comcast out of it for so cheap. Disney… the name and brand… and their bundle… brought it subscribers and started to buck that trend and led Disney to need to pay Comcast 8 billion to buy out the remaining 33% they didn’t control. Which actually ended up being less than Comcast’s valuation.

Disney+ still has considerably more subscribers than Hulu… and they offer a bundle that includes Hulu.

Hulu is not a good brand name. Disney is. There’s a reason they’re looking to pull it all into Disney+, and buy Fubo for streaming TV services.

 

[voodoo111]

Disney+ has been profitable for the past couple years… and all streaming services start in the red. And through the quarters of the 2025 FY that number has skyrocketed.

Hulu was never profitable, it’s why they got everyone but Comcast out of it for so cheap. Disney… the name and brand… and their bundle… brought it subscribers and started to buck that trend and led Disney to need to pay Comcast 8 billion to buy out the remaining 33% they didn’t control. Which actually ended up being less than Comcast’s valuation.

Disney+ still has considerably more subscribers than Hulu… and they offer a bundle that includes Hulu.

Hulu is not a good brand name. Disney is. There’s a reason they’re looking to pull it all into Disney+, and buy Fubo for streaming TV services.

No.. D+ on its own, as its own streaming service with original content has never been profitable. No one is watching and Neilson proves that.
That's the criticism of Iger and Disney. They needed to buy other services that made it profitable. Bought Hulu on the cheap and not profitable? Umm.. no. The purchase of Hulu from NBC/Universal by Disney pretty much paid for Epic Universe and it was only in Q3 of 2024 that D+ turned a profit, and that was because of Hulu.
But Disney in its arrogance, believed Epic Universe is/was no threat to them. Bet you they regret saying that now considering how empty the Disney Parks are right now. Iger is absolutely useless. Michael Eisner made Disney into what it was, Chapek (say what you will) held the reigns over Disney when its highest stock price at nearly $200 USD, while with what Iger has done, it dropped to $75 USD (currently about $112 USD). Iger should go back to reading the weather at ABC.

 

[BuffaloTF]

No.. D+ on its own, as its own streaming service with original content has never been profitable. No one is watching and Neilson proves that.
That's the criticism of Iger and Disney. They needed to buy other services that made it profitable. Bought Hulu on the cheap and not profitable? Umm.. no. The purchase of Hulu from NBC/Universal by Disney pretty much paid for Epic Universe and it was only in Q3 of 2024 that D+ turned a profit, and that was because of Hulu.
But Disney in its arrogance, believed Epic Universe is/was no threat to them. Bet you they regret saying that now considering how empty the Disney Parks are right now. Iger is absolutely useless. Michael Eisner made Disney into what it was, Chapek (say what you will) held the reigns over Disney when its highest stock price at nearly $200 USD, while with what Iger has done, it dropped to $75 USD (currently about $112 USD). Iger should go back to reading the weather at ABC.

Yes… yes Disney+ is profitable and has been for the past few years. They’re a publicly traded company, lying about this would result in felony charges from the SEC.

Nielsen doesn’t collect, nor have any mechanism to collect, streaming viewership data. The only way to collect anything is for the streamer itself to install Nielsen software into its servers, something they only received approval to do mere months ago… and only Amazon has done so.

And yes… the last piece of Hulu was cheaper than Comcast’s valuation which was a scaling number… and it fell in Disney’s favor to the tune of more than 400 million dollars less. It could’ve gone the other way and been closer to 9 as well. Like, numbers don’t lie. And yeah, it’ll cover the cost of Epic Universe, but it won’t. Banks throw free money at corporations all the time. They’d be insane to pay it off all at once rather than making their liquidity work for them in overnight interest, even as low as rates are presently.

Disney is the bigger brand in streaming. They were the instant they entered the market. Hulu is nothing. Brand names have value, and Disney’s is one of the strongest in the history of brands. Hulu exists in the US and Japan, exclusively. Nobody will notice when it’s gone. Saying otherwise would be like trying to say Coca Cola was stupid to go with “Diet Coke” instead of Tab. Brands have value, Tab had history yet no value.

 

[voodoo111]

Yes… yes Disney+ is profitable and has been for the past few years. They’re a publicly traded company, lying about this would result in felony charges from the SEC.

Nielsen doesn’t collect, nor have any mechanism to collect, streaming viewership data. The only way to collect anything is for the streamer itself to install Nielsen software into its servers, something they only received approval to do mere months ago… and only Amazon has done so.

And yes… the last piece of Hulu was cheaper than Comcast’s valuation which was a scaling number… and it fell in Disney’s favor to the tune of more than 400 million dollars less. It could’ve gone the other way and been closer to 9 as well. Like, numbers don’t lie. And yeah, it’ll cover the cost of Epic Universe, but it won’t. Banks throw free money at corporations all the time. They’d be insane to pay it off all at once rather than making their liquidity work for them in overnight interest, even as low as rates are presently.

Disney is the bigger brand in streaming. They were the instant they entered the market. Hulu is nothing. Brand names have value, and Disney’s is one of the strongest in the history of brands. Hulu exists in the US and Japan, exclusively. Nobody will notice when it’s gone. Saying otherwise would be like trying to say Coca Cola was stupid to go with “Diet Coke” instead of Tab. Brands have value, Tab had history yet no value.

Propping your streaming service from 'one service to another' within D+ doesn't make D+ profitable. It's Peter pinching from Paul. Sleight of hand.

Yes, Nielson does collect streaming data: "In 2021, Nielsen announced Nielsen Streaming Video Ratings, a service meant to measure total viewership and audience demographics on streaming platforms. This service is powered by Nielsen's NPOWER audience insights platform, which allows studios, platforms, and advertisers to know which demographics are interacting with content".

Hulu's nothing? I would beg to differ: (Acquired content)

The only thing that D+ has in the top 10 is Bluey, an Australian produced TV show where D+ only has the rights to distribute. So even their acquired content can barely make the top 10.

I am not saying Disney isn't the bigger brand. Of course it is.. I'm saying D+ as it own original content was not profitable until it starting absorbing other services and it was the absorption of Hulu made that come to fruition. People may want not believe that, and that's fine. Disney should be very scared of Epic Universe.

 

[BuffaloTF]

Propping your streaming service from 'one service to another' within D+ doesn't make D+ profitable. It's Peter pinching from Paul. Sleight of hand.

Yes, Nielson does collect streaming data: "In 2021, Nielsen announced Nielsen Streaming Video Ratings, a service meant to measure total viewership and audience demographics on streaming platforms. This service is powered by Nielsen's NPOWER audience insights platform, which allows studios, platforms, and advertisers to know which demographics are interacting with content".

Hulu's nothing? I would beg to differ: (Acquired content)View attachment 2536663

The only thing that D+ has in the top 10 is Bluey, an Australian produced TV show where D+ only has the rights to distribute. So even their acquired content can barely make the top 10.

I am not saying Disney isn't the bigger brand. Of course it is.. I'm saying D+ as it own original content was not profitable until it starting absorbing other services and it was the absorption of Hulu made that come to fruition. People may want not believe that, and that's fine. Disney should be very scared of Epic Universe.

Sigh… they report everything separately. This is the final fiscal year they’ll do so given they’ve had to report these separately since they didn’t own the company until June…

Nielsen does not report anything other than guesstimates to date, except for Amazon, and only since November.

Hulu is nothing. It’s only available in the US and Japan. 128 million subscribers for one, 55 for another… thanks to bundling. And it’s live TV service is what brings in its revenue, with a live tv sub being worth 5x more to the company… which makes the Fubo acquisition make a whole lot of sense (and it’s not even a full acquisition).

 

[voodoo111]

Sigh… they report everything separately. This is the final fiscal year they’ll do so given they’ve had to report these separately since they didn’t own the company until June…

Nielsen does not report anything other than guesstimates to date, except for Amazon, and only since November.

Hulu is nothing. It’s only available in the US and Japan. 128 million subscribers for one, 55 for another… thanks to bundling. And it’s live TV service is what brings in its revenue, with a live tv sub being worth 5x more to the company… which makes the Fubo acquisition make a whole lot of sense (and it’s not even a full acquisition).

I wont bother to debunk that 'guesstimate' theory.. as I dont think you would believe it anyhow.

And that is precisely why D+ and Disney Corp should be worried. Approx 150 million world wide subscribers for D+. World wide! And 55 million for Hulu, of which is in only 2 countries. A third of D+ subscribers in only 2 countries. Now put that 55 million in a dollar figure and I wouldn't call that nothing. That is a huge amount of eyes and a massive dollar profit compared to the expendure for world wide. They bought it because it was most definitely profitable.
Problem is.. Disney has wasted so much money on a streaming serivice that wouldn't have survived had it not absorbed other services. Its too late to course correct, too much money thrown away and Iger's hubris would never allow himself to say he got it wrong.. at least not publicly anyhow.

 

[DerekEvans9859]

You're an idiot and you're wrong. Disney+ has more users and is definitely profitable. A quick Google search can prove that...or do you not trust Google? The Disney brand is known worldwide, Hulu is not. We get it, you hate Disney...that's fine. But don't sit here and tell blatant lies that it's not profitable. Netflix wasn't profitable for it's first 12 years until the eventually turned a profit. Get over it guy

 

[voodoo111]

You're an idiot and you're wrong. Disney+ has more users and is definitely profitable. A quick Google search can prove that...or do you not trust Google? The Disney brand is known worldwide, Hulu is not. We get it, you hate Disney...that's fine. But don't sit here and tell blatant lies that it's not profitable. Netflix wasn't profitable for it's first 12 years until the eventually turned a profit. Get over it guy

I dont need to drop to your level of name calling - Because I criticise a company and what they do I hate them? Right.. good to know that questioning things makes one an idiot. I will remember that

 

[BuffaloTF]

I wont bother to debunk that 'guesstimate' theory.. as I dont think you would believe it anyhow.

And that is precisely why D+ and Disney Corp should be worried. Approx 150 million world wide subscribers for D+. World wide! And 55 million for Hulu, of which is in only 2 countries. A third of D+ subscribers in only 2 countries. Now put that 55 million in a dollar figure and I wouldn't call that nothing. That is a huge amount of eyes and a massive dollar profit compared to the expendure for world wide. They bought it because it was most definitely profitable.
Problem is.. Disney has wasted so much money on a streaming serivice that wouldn't have survived had it not absorbed other services. Its too late to course correct, too much money thrown away and Iger's hubris would never allow himself to say he got it wrong.. at least not publicly anyhow.

You do realize Hulu has only seen significant subscriber boosts since Disney+ bundles have been available, yes? That was 2019, and the number was 20 million, and it was free to boot up to that point.

And 150 million is good enough to be the 3rd most popular streaming service in the world. Netflix and Prime Video are the only ones with more… and one of those is a free toss-in for getting Prime delivery service. It’s their primary revenue driver, the box office has been replaced for everyone since Covid - everyone.

And you can’t debunk the guesstimate fact. It’s Nielsen’s entire line of business since they came into existence. It has always been a guess based on a small sample. Not it’s an even bigger guess. They don’t even hide it. They are quite transparent in how they rely on people’s recollection to log what they watched and when they watched it, or to install spying devices within their homes to listen to what they’re watching - then they use that data and demographic to estimate the total number of viewers in a market or a nation. It’s a guesstimate.

The brand… the money maker… is Disney. Not anything else. Disney.