Hulu’s content has now merged with Disney+, The Hollywood Reporter reports. Disney has stated that Hulu’s entire catalog of content is available for streaming to give Disney bundle subscribers, or the ones subscribed to one of the streamers, access to both of them at the same time. The president of direct-to-consumer for Disney Entertainment, Joe Earley, has shared his thoughts on the news.
“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,” he stated, via The Hollywood Reporter.
The Hulu content, originally, according to The Hollywood Reporter, was available on Disney+ in beta form. Now it’s all united in one, and Aaron LaBerge, president and CTO for Disney Entertainment & ESPN, has explained why this strategic marketing move will be useful to promote ESPN’s platform when it’s ready to hit the streaming market.
“This launch really represents the most extensive technical advancement to Disney+ and our entire streaming platform since we launched Disney+ over four years ago,” LaBerge explained, via The Hollywood Reporter. “Our teams have had to reimagine and redesign many core aspects of our platform. We completely redefined the way that we manage our video assets, integrating our libraries and improving quality. We shipped an entirely new content management system that delivers capabilities for editorial and programming teams to merchandise and promote our content with much more flexibility.”
For subscribers to both streaming apps, according to The Hollywood Reporter, there will be a Hulu tile with content ready to stream, as now all their shows and movies are in the catalogue. For people subscribed only to Disney+ and not Hulu, the streaming platform allows them to search for Hulu content in the search bar to encourage people to upgrade to a new bundle. Then when the user subscribes to Hulu and clicks on the show, it will be automatically available to watch.
“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 shared, via The Hollywood Reporter. “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 has added, via The Hollywood Reporter. “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.”
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Disney has begun this marketing phase to promote the merge of the two streaming platforms in one when the Superbowl aired, back in January. Today, the “phase three” begins. so if you want to stream shows like The Bear and Family Guy, they are available now on Disney+. You can see the commercial for this new offer below:
Furthermore, according to The Hollywood Reporter, the Disney+ logo has changed to an aquamarine color to combine Disney+’s blue one with Hulu’s green original logo. Earley stated that one out of every three eligible subscribers was able to watch Hulu and Disney+ content while it was still in beta mode, so, this is a great way to enhance the already high engagement for both streaming platforms. “As long as we’re increasing the engagement, it’s a win regardless of where it happens,” Earley shared.
Hulu content is available to stream on Disney+ today.