Report: Disney Bundle Drives Only Moderate Cross-Service Traffic; Will Ad-Supported Disney+ Help?

The release of the Disney Bundle that accompanied the 2019 launch of Disney+ was thought to be a game-changer when it first hit the market. Three services for what was essentially the price of one was an excellent deal, and it was thought that the rising tide would lift the boats of all services involved; Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+.

Three years in, however, the results have been decidedly more mixed than was anticipated at launch. According to data from MoffettNathanson and HarrisX, only half of users who primarily watch Hulu say that they also watch Disney+. Cross-platform usage rises slightly among customers who say that they primarily watch Disney+, but plummets among respondents who categorize themselves as primarily ESPN+ users.

Disney’s services boast impressive total numbers, with Disney+ reporting 137.7 million global users and Hulu adding another 46.2 million. In addition to Disney’s general entertainment streamers, ESPN+ grew 53% in the last year to rise to 22.8 million subscribers as of the third quarter of 2022. The combined subscription totals add up to north of 221 million customers.

Given those numbers, Disney can actually boast more combined global subscribers than Netflix’s 220.67 customers. Of course, Disney’s numbers do not adjust for subscriber overlap brought on by the Bundle. So, while the unique customer total is still considerably behind that of its largest streaming competitor, it’s certain that the company would like cross-service use to be much higher than it currently is.

That holds especially true because of the fact that the Disney Bundle still significantly lags behind Netflix in terms of minutes streamed as well. The combined libraries of Disney+ and Hulu only account for 67% of the total minutes that consumers streamed on Netflix during Q3 of this year. Despite surpassing Netflix's subscriber total Disney can’t match Netflix in terms of demand.

So what can Disney do to encourage more subscribers to get the most out of the full bundle? For starters, it could better integrate its services. Making the Hulu library available via a tile on Disney+ instead of forcing customers to navigate to a new site would be a big step in the right direction. Disney CEO Bob Chapek has stated that he’d prefer to merge Hulu and Disney+ into one service, but the company has to sort out a messy arrangement over the rights to Hulu with Comcast first.

Another change that may drive customers to increase their cross-traffic usage is the upcoming introduction of a lower-cost ad-supported tier of Disney+, which is coming Dec. 8. The lower cost of Disney+ may induce more Hulu users to give it a try.

In addition, 30% of current Disney+ users say they plan to switch over to the new tier when it is released, according to TiVo. Those customers may find the Disney Bundle more attractive, and justifiable from a budgetary standpoint with a lower-cost Disney+ attached. The ad-supported Disney bundle will cost $12.99 per month when it launches in December, a savings of 52% over what the services would cost separately.

The Disney Bundle is a powerful price-saving tool for customers, and will continue to be so. But it hasn’t driven the cross-service traffic that Disney would like yet, and if combining Disney+ with Hulu or introducing a lower price tier doesn’t increase those numbers, expect the House of Mouse to get more creative to bump traffic up across its streaming platforms.