Why merging Holo with Disney+ bad idea

If you care, you might see this next. Disney Bob Iger has announced that Hulu and Disney+ will merge into one flow interface. It is the natural extension of “Hulu on Disney+” integration in 2024, which added a Hulu films tab and shows at the Disney+ interface for users who have subscriptions in both service.

The numbers from the end of June 2025 put the total number of subscribers across both platforms at 183 million worldwide, with the majority – about 128 million – from Disney+. The package deals between the two and the other main broadcast platform in Disney, ESPN+ were common in recent years, but it is clear that the Disney+ Mark sign is currently stronger.

“In the coming months, we will make improvements within the Disney Plus application, including exciting new features and a more customized home page,” Egger said in Disney’s separation profit report. Cnet), “All of this will be crowned with the experience of the uniform Disney Plus application and the Hulu application that will be available to consumers next year.” While taking it at the nominal value, this means that the Disney application+ will be the last position for the two, as all Hulu content is integrated into the platform.

Although this may be inevitable, it is not necessarily a good thing. The high prices through the broadcasting market have hit the consumer strongly over the past few years, including those for Disney+. This monotheism may make a greater problem, with less options for subscribers to choose libraries they also want – although Disney is sure to offer a new set of subscription levels as part of the merger. Either way, there are still big questions to ask about the Disney+ as a whole.

outside All main broadcast platforms (Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max, Peacock, etc.), it is difficult to think about one with a more complex infrastructure than Disney+. The platform is designed first and foremost to concentrate the largest brands of the company: Star Wars, Marvel, National Geographic, Pixar and Disney Proper, among other things. It is a digital environmental system that completely buys the Platonic idea of the “fan” whose loyalty is for their concession, always the incentive for driving in their content consumption. Finding anything specific or less known, there is always trouble.

Hulu was coordinated, compared, in a more traditional way and has been designed to showcase full libraries and announce new content according to various points of possible interest (type, importance, etc.). Simply put, it is a very cleaner application, and it is a shame that it will perish and swallow.

It should also be noted that in the same profit report, Disney announced that it would stop publishing the number of official subscribers to broadcasting platforms, which changes the focus from the eyes on the screen to the actual funds made. This reflects greater transformations in the industry in how companies measure success – which is volatile to follow in the broadcasting era. Less than a year has passed since Disney began reporting the actual profits of the broadcasting department, and while it is now working as a commercial activity, with $ 346 million of broadcasting in the last quarter, the reputation of the product is still a little blossom.

Before she became profitable at the end of 2024, Disney+ hemorrhage was exposed to more than $ 10 billion of losses. There may now seem to be a finally light at the end of the tunnel, but the flowing scene has not got any less chaos, and Disney will need more circles a success in obtaining the initial drowning cost.

Of course, the money itself is only one part of the equation. It is also worth considering the reputation of Disney+ resounding and IP. For the largest part, The main brands such as Marvel and Star Wars suffered in the Disney+ eraWith more important differences than visits and a lot of big budgets that have not resulted in much of the return on investment. These things have succeeded in the past in the world of broadcasting and in the rest of the works, as it becomes clear from the return of the box office to suffer on Marvel Cinematic University over the past few years, and the lack of theatrical “Star Wars”. Even Pixar, which was applicable, had suffered from doubtful content strategies in the broadcast era.

Holo built a very good reputation for strong original programmingAs well as her partnership with FX. It would be a shame to see that good intentions are moving in a similar way as other sub -brands in Disney after Disney+dominated them. In the long run, the unification of the two and the maintenance of the Disney name on the pavilion may be the correct commercial step. But the record indicates that the high prices, a worse interface, and a decline in content may all come as part of it.