Hulu is officially shutting down in 2026. Hulu was one of the first streaming services on the scene, and served as one of the original competitors to Netflix. Hulu had a great deal of success in its early years and was eventually acquired by Disney. When Disney launched its own streaming service, Disney+, some questioned whether Hulu would stick around.
Disney has featured some Disney+ content on the Hulu app and vice versa, showing that the company has always been willing to blur the line between the two streaming services. But Disney+ has proven to be exponentially more popular than Hulu, with over double its subscriber count at 126 million versus 54.7 million. Now, instead of keeping its customers separate, it seems Disney is hoping to bring them all under one umbrella.
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Hulu Will Become Part of Disney+ in 2026
Disney has confirmed that Hulu is shutting down in 2026. That doesn't mean that Hulu content is going away, however. Instead, Hulu content will be fully integrated into the Disney+ app. On paper, it sounds like this is going to be more convenient for subscribers who may be signed up for both apps. It's possible pricing changes will come about as a result of this, but if so, those details have yet to be announced.
By integrating Disney+ and Hulu, Disney is certainly hoping to boost the Disney+ subscriber count, but time will tell if it will be enough to knock Netflix off its throne. Netflix is comfortably the top streaming service in the world, followed by Amazon Prime and Disney+. Putting Disney+ and Hulu in one category should certainly help, though it's tough to say how many people were already subscribed to both Hulu and Disney+ anyway.
There may be some concern among Hulu subscribers that the move to Disney+ will mean less of the adult-oriented programming associated with Hulu, but that's unlikely to be the case. There are places in the world where Disney+ already features plenty of adult-oriented programming. Even in the US, Disney+ features the MCU Netflix shows, with all their violence, sexual content, and drug use intact, so subscribers shouldn't have much to worry about on that front.
This isn't the only big streaming news to come out of Disney today. It was also revealed that Disney-owned ESPN has inked a deal with WWE that will see the wrestling company's PLEs released exclusively on the new ESPN app beginning in 2026 in the US. Currently, WWE PLEs are available through Peacock, which is significantly cheaper than the $29.99 ESPN streaming service, expected to launch on August 21.
