- Disney’s unified streaming app could launch by “the end of the calendar year”
- The one-app experience will officially mark the merging of Disney+ and Hulu
- CEO Bob Iger wouldn’t be drawn on an exact date during the company’s Q1 2026 earnings call
Disney+ and Hulu will officially merge and become a single streaming app before the end of 2026.
That’s according to outgoing Disney chief executive Bob Iger, who stated his belief that the company’s unified app experience would happen by “the end of the calendar year”. Iger mentioned the revised launch window to shareholders during Disney’s Q1 2026 earnings and investor call, which took place today (Monday, February 6).
Iger’s comments arrive six months after it was revealed that Disney+ and Hulu would become a single streaming app, with Iger suggesting last August that the merger would occur in early 2026.
Now, the House of Mouse’s CEO believes it won’t happen for many months, saying: “Even though consumers will always be able to buy Disney+ or Hulu on its own, we are hard at work on the technology front to create the one app experience.
“But, by and large, we believe the great majority of consumers will buy both and it will be a fully integrated experience,” he continued, before adding: “I would guess that would be coming sometime by the end of the calendar year.”
Opinion: a unified streaming app sounds great – until you realize you’ll be paying for it
Whenever Disney+ effectively absorbs Hulu, it won’t mark the start of one of the world’s best streaming services (Hulu) being integrated into another (Disney+).
Last October, Hulu officially replaced Disney+ Star as the content banner that Hulu and FX Originals would live under in non-US territories. That change, which also introduced an updated user interface on Disney+, arrived almost two years after The Walt Disney Company began testing a combined Disney+ and Hulu app. Clearly, this is something Disney has wanted to implement for a long time.
Nonetheless, the prospect of a unified streaming app poses a big – not to mention very predictable – question: will it lead to yet another price increase?
Writing about the Disney+ and Hulu merger in the August 2025 article I linked to earlier, my colleague Jasmine Valentine pointed out that Disney didn’t raise the $19.99 monthly fee of its ad-free Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN premium bundle in August 2024. That showed that the entertainment behemoth isn’t averse to freezing prices to keep costs down for consumers.
Unfortunately, that’s been the exception to the norm. Disney has upped the price of its various subscription tiers annually for the last few years now, which frustrated customers haven’t been shy about voicing their displeasure over. For more on how much it currently costs to sign up to the platform, read my Disney+ price guide.
So, will you and I be hit with yet another price hike when this combined app arrives? I suspect so, yes. And, with October being the month that Disney has raised the price of Hulu and Disney+ in the past two years, I wouldn’t be shocked if said unified app is not only rolled out in October 2026, but also results in more expense-based pain for customers.
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tom.power@futurenet.com (Tom Power)
