Hulu’s Content Now on Disney+: What You Need to Know
By Movieguide® Contributor
Those who subscribe to both Hulu and Disney+ will now get the full service of Hulu within the Disney+ app.
Per Variety, “Starting Wednesday (March 27), the full Hulu on Disney+ experience is rolling out in the U.S. That means Hulu titles will be integrated into personalized content recommendations, sets and collections on Disney+. Under the previous ‘beta’ integration, which launched last December, Hulu content was presented in a separate hub on Disney+.”
“Its whole goal is to make happier subscribers and healthier subscribers, provide them convenience, deeper engagement, better retention and increase the value of the Disney bundle for our subscribers,” said Joe Earley, President of direct-to-consumer for Disney Entertainment.
Aaron LaBerge, President & CTO for Disney Entertainment & ESPN, added, “This launch really represents the most extensive technical advancement to Disney+ and our entire streaming platform since we launched Disney+ over four years ago. Our teams have had to reimagine and redesign many core aspects of our platform.”
How does the new feature work?
If a user is subscribed to both Disney+ and Hulu—either bundled or separately but under the same email address—”a new Hulu tile will automatically populate, with all Hulu shows now fully baked into the system,” wrote The Hollywood Reporter.
For those who don’t have a Hulu account but have Disney+, “the service will still allow users to search for Hulu shows, and will also feature tiles encouraging users to upgrade to a bundle.”
“We started out primarily focusing on the bundled subscribers and how this is going to increase their engagement and reduce the friction for them,” Earley stated. “But as you saw, there are also three in-app entry points for those stand-alone Disney+ subscribers who want to upgrade to the bundle so that they can unlock all of this together.”
“We’ve improved personalization throughout the entire app, which of course now includes Hulu content throughout,” LaBarge explained. “Content recommendations are going to be more relevant based on your usage and more real time and all of that is going to be backed by experimentation capabilities that are really going to allow us to be much more data driven not only in how we market but how we promote content.”
However, this merge of Disney+’s kid-friendly content with Hulu’s more adult-oriented titles could pose a risk for parents and kids. Movieguide® reported:
While the soft combination of the steaming platforms will streamline the user experience, it also poses a problem for parents. Disney+ is largely composed of content aimed at children, while Hulu’s user base is primarily adults. Once the merge occurs, parents will need to update their parental controls to ensure their kids are protected from viewing inappropriate content that was not previously accessible.
