More Cuts to Hulu Could be On Their Way; Is Disney Paving the Way for ‘One-App Experience?’
By now, most viewers who are devotees of Disney’s entertainment streaming services Disney+ and Hulu have heard of the big content cuts made on both platforms. Shows like “The World According to Jeff Goldblum” and “Willow” have disappeared from Disney+, and titles such as “Y: The Last Man” and “Dollface” have been purged from Hulu.
The cuts are likely not yet finished, either. In an SEC filing earlier this week, the company said it expected to pay $1.5 billion in impairment charges for removing the content from its balance sheet, and said that it anticipated racking up another $400 million in similar charges for titles it has not yet pulled.
A new round of cuts could hit Hulu the hardest. This is purely educated speculation, but considering how much content was recently purged from Disney+, and how comparatively lightly hit Hulu has been thus far, it’s a definite possibility. Disney CEO Bob Iger said that the company needed to “aggressively” curate its general entertainment offerings on streaming earlier this year, and considering that general entertainment is Hulu’s specialty, it stands to reason more cuts are on their way.
The fact that Disney is taking the time to make content cuts on Hulu at all suggests once again that the company is moving toward the purchase of Comcast’s 33% stake in the streamer. After Iger was reinstalled as Disney chairman in November, doubts arose about Disney’s intentions regarding Hulu. But in early May, Disney announced that it was planning to integrate Hulu and Disney+ as a “one-app experience,” which all but confirmed that Disney would move forward with a buyout of Comcast’s portion of Hulu.
Indeed, the cuts to Hulu and Disney+ might partially be intended to help a new, one-app streaming experience function better. Max has far fewer combined titles than its predecessors HBO Max and discovery+ had separately, even though it’s much bigger than HBO Max used to be on its own. Removing titles that not many users were watching helps lighten the load servers are forced to carry, which can lead to better responsiveness from the streaming app itself.
Disney’s content-cutting strategy is certainly meant to emulate Warner Bros. Discovery’s in one aspect: profitability. The company can no longer stomach cringe-inducing losses from its streaming segment, and content cuts are an important part of reversing those losses. Hulu might not be done losing shows and movies quite yet, but the losses could benefit users in the long term if they lead to a better streaming product from Disney.
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Hulu is a video streaming service that gives access to thousands of full seasons of exclusive series, hit movies, kids shows, and Hulu Originals like “Only Murders in the Building,” and “The Handmaid’s Tale.”