Will Disney+ and Hulu merge to become the ultimate single juggernaut to take on Netflix head-to-head? Collider.com seems to think they might….
For more than a year now, there has been speculation that Disney might one day fold Hulu into its Disney+ streaming service. While that day hasn’t arrived just yet, a handful of executives from both streamers have been leaving or let go of late due to overlapping personnel, and such a consolidation would make a lot of sense down the line from a business perspective.
The working theory is that there’s strength in numbers, and The Walt Disney Company would look much more appealing to Wall Street investors if it could boast of having 110 million subscribers on a single service, rather than 73.7 million on Disney+ and 36.6 million on Hulu. It simply makes more sense to combine the two streaming services into one single juggernaut that appeals to both families and adults.
After all, Hollywood is in the midst of the Streaming Wars, and these days, streaming services have to be all things to all people. Netflix is way out in front given the sizable head start it has had on most of its competitors, but that doesn’t mean its lead is insurmountable. If any streamer can catch Netflix, it’s Disney+ thanks to the massive IP it has at its disposal, from Marvel to Star Wars to Pixar.
But there are still large swaths of adults who don’t have kids and aren’t interested in those blockbuster brands. Hulu has a lot of great original programming, especially since the FX on Hulu experiment began, and Disney is said to be eager to bring those subscribers under one roof.
“This is hypothetical speculation and there are no such plans,” a Hulu spokesperson told Collider.
Questions remain as to what Disney+ would look like in that scenario, but it wouldn’t be too difficult to put parental controls on mature content, or require some kind of passcode to access certain films and TV shows. While some naysayers suggest Disney would never do anything to jeopardize its family-friendly brand, others argue that consumers have become savvy enough to navigate those choppy waters.
Do you think this will happen, and if so, when? Perhaps something will be said at next week’s Dinsey Investor Day on December 10th. We will be sure to bring you all the news from the Investor Day as it happens — stay tuned!
