At Disney Investor Day in March, in which the company revealed their upcoming Disney+ streaming service — Hulu CEO Randy Freer announced that just like they do with HBO and Showtime, Hulu will also make Disney+ as an add-on to the service. It is expected that, Disney, which reached a deal with Comcast to take full control of Hulu, will offer a discounted bundle of all three of their streaming services — Hulu, ESPN+, and Disney+.
On the Recode Media Podcast with Peter Kafka, Hulu CEO Randy Freer shared that they are “still working through with Disney, what we believe and they believe will be the best consumer offering around those two, well three services ultimately — Hulu, Disney+, and ESPN+. We’re still finalizing what that will look like.”
Hulu already does some sort of bundling through their partnership with Sprint, which includes Hulu for free, and with Spotify, which is currently bundling the ad-supported service with their $9.99 premium subscription. But, Freer said some of the complexity is that “there is always engineering work to be done. And the more complicated you get in you offers, each one adds a level of complexity to your billing system.”
Ultimately, it appears that a discounted bundle is coming, but what that offer will be remains to be seen. And with Disney+ at an already attractive $6.99 a month, the bundle will have draw consumer in at a higher price point. Freer noted, “It really is figuring out what the best offer is for customers, not only as a Hulu, but ultimately as you saw Disney+, in particular, is a pretty impressive service, and wants to make sure when they launch and when they roll, they are really elevated to a point.”