December may be your last chance to stream on Disney+ (well, just Disney+). CEO Bob Iger recently announced the company’s decision to forego the streaming service as it looks now to merge it fully with Hulu. Since its inception, Disney+ has struggled to compete with streaming giants like Netflix and Max despite its extensive catalog of cult classics. The platform reportedly loses the company millions of dollars each year, even as subscription prices have steadily increased. And though subscribers have had the chance to add Hulu onto their Disney+ account, Iger is conscious that parents might not be happy to suddenly have no barriers between the catalogs. “We are basically putting it in beta so that we can prepare parents, largely, to basically implement parental controls because you’ll be able to access Hulu programming on the same app,” Iger said of the merged app. While YPulse data shows that Disney+ is the sixth most popular video content platform amongst young consumers, it’s the second most popular for young parents’ children—so keeping parents happy is clearly important in this merger. (Inside The Magic)
