Disney’s D23 Expo had plenty of exciting trailer reveals, celebrity sightings, and enough corporate synergy–speak to make your eyes roll this past weekend in Anaheim, California. But aside from the big announcements at the packed convention panels, Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Chapek was out and about, giving rare interviews providing interesting tidbits on the future of Disney’s streaming service, Disney+. The most revealing detail came from an interview with Variety as Chapek spoke about the Disney bundle — which as of now includes Hulu, Disney+, and ESPN+ — explaining the differences between a “soft” and a “hard” bundle. “Soft bundle,” as he defined it, “is, hey, buy all three services for the low price of X. The hard bundle is when things become seamless, and without friction. Right now if you want to go from Hulu to ESPN+ to Disney+, you have to go out of one app to another app. In the future, we may have less friction (grins).”
The quotes hint at the long-standing buzz for Disney+ and Hulu to combine forces — similar to how Star (a hub that houses Hulu originals, 20th Century Studios media, and more) is a tile on Disney+ internationally — once Disney is allowed to buy out Comcast’s 33 percent share in Hulu in 2024. It seems incredibly likely that the Walt Disney Company will buy out the share in 2024, and Chapek confirmed that Disney has been interested in accelerating the buyout, as Disney+ continues to beef up its content output for non-kid subscribers. “We have lots of general entertainment content within the Walt Disney Co. We just don’t have the full ability to use it because of the complicated ownership situation that we have (in Hulu), at least for the next 16 months,” he explained. It feels like all the signs are pointing to a Hulu-Disney+ announcement sometime in the future. Now if only the more “general entertainment” Chapek wants on the streamer could include the return of the Lizzie McGuire reboot …
