- Disney’s unified streaming app could launch “at the end of the calendar year”
- Single-app experience will officially mark Disney+ and Hulu merger
- CEO Bob Iger did not give an exact date during the company’s first-quarter 2026 earnings call.
Disney+ and Hulu will officially merge and become a single streaming app before the end of 2026.
This is according to outgoing Disney CEO 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 2).
Iger’s comments come six months after it was revealed that Disney+ and Hulu would become a single streaming app, and Iger suggested last August that the merger would occur in early 2026.
Now, the House of Mouse CEO believes this won’t happen for many months, saying, “While consumers will always be able to purchase Disney+ or Hulu on their own, we’re working hard on the technology front to create a unique app experience.
“But overall, we think the vast majority of consumers will buy both and it will be a fully integrated experience,” he continued, before adding, “My guess is that that will come sometime toward the end of the calendar year.”
Opinion: A unified streaming app sounds great, until you realize you’ll have to pay for it
When Disney+ effectively absorbs Hulu, it won’t mark the beginning of the integration of one of the world’s best streaming services (Hulu) into another (Disney+).
Last October, Hulu officially replaced Disney+ Star as the content banner under which Hulu and FX Originals would live in territories outside the U.S. That change, which also introduced an updated user interface to Disney+, came nearly 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.
However, the prospect of a unified streaming app raises an important, if not very predictable, question: will it lead to another price increase?
Writing about the Disney+ and Hulu merger in the August 2025 article I linked to above, my colleague Jasmine Valentine noted that Disney did not increase the $19.99 monthly fee for its premium ad-free Disney+, Hulu and ESPN package in August 2024. That showed that the entertainment giant is not averse to freezing prices to keep costs down for consumers.
Unfortunately, that has been the exception to the norm. Disney has raised the price of its various subscription tiers annually for the past few years, which frustrated customers have not been shy about voicing their displeasure. For more information on how much it currently costs to sign up for the platform, read my Disney+ pricing guide.
So, will you and I suffer another price increase when this bundled app arrives? I suspect so, yes. And since October is the month Disney raised the price of Hulu and Disney+ over the past two years, I wouldn’t be surprised if said unified app not only launched in October 2026, but also created more issues for customers due to the expense.
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