Hulu, Disney+ ‘One-App Experience’ Expected Later This Year, But Will Launch Without Some Features

The Mouse House is in a bit of disarray, these days. A new report from the Wall Street Journal has some updates regarding what’s going on with Disney’s streaming arm, and when fans can expect the “one-app” experience which integrates Disney+ and Hulu to be available to stream.

• “One-app experience” with Disney+ and Hulu still coming this year
• Disney’s goal is for its streaming segment to be profitable by September 2024
• Negotiations with Comcast for its portion of Hulu are already underway

Time Keeps on Slipping…

The Journal states that Disney had originally planned to launch its one-app experience for Disney+ and Hulu in September of this year. Disney CEO Bob Iger announced that the two streamers would be available on one app in May, but layoffs at the company over the summer and other delays have forced engineers to revise their target date for the launch of the product to the end of 2023.

The Disney/Hulu experience won’t be complete when it launches, either. Some features, like a new bundle for Disney+ and Hulu or personalized Hulu recommendations based on past Disney+ viewing, won’t be ready to go until March, but the company figures it would rather launch sooner than later.

A Completist’s Nightmare

There’s one more issue that Hulu users will have to grapple with when the Hulu tile appears on Disney+: it won’t have all of Hulu’s content. Hulu has a much greater selection of TV shows currently available than Disney+ does, but the Journal reports that only select content will be sent to Hulu on Disney+ initially. Disney is not sunsetting the Hulu app overnight, so subscribers will still be able to find more obscure shows and movies there, but it will still be more friction than the company wanted to subject its users to when it first envisioned the one-app experience.

Shows like “The Bear,” “Only Murders in the Building” and other top titles from Hulu will almost certainly be made available when its content becomes accessible via Disney+. But it may take a while for the company to fully integrate the libraries of both streamers onto a single app.

There are plenty of other unanswered questions regarding the plan to launch a Hulu section on Disney+ before year’s end, but at least some details are now public. Disney started negotiations with Comcast regarding the purchase of that company’s 33% of Hulu last month, earlier than originally intended in order to have done with the process once and for all. Bob Iger wants to make Disney’s streaming arm profitable by September of 2024, and sees the one-app experience with Disney+ and Hulu as a big part of those plans.