Disney Solidifies Its Position on Bundling as ESPN+ Officially Joins the Hulu Family

Bundling has been the go-to watchword for streaming services this year, and few have been as active in this space as Disney. With the full power of its “little sister,” Hulu, now under its full control, Disney has now officially combined all its primary services under a single banner for Disney+. Brandon Blake, our entertainment attorney Los Angeles from Blake & Wang P.A., has the full story for us.

 


                                                                             Brandon Blake

ESPN+ Trio Bundle

While ESPN+ has been “kind of, sort of” on offer through Disney+, as has Hulu itself, it will now have an official branded ESPN tile on the Disney+ home screen. Hulu itself was folded into the same official ecosystem earlier this year.

 

However, there’s more underway for ESPN+ itself. Disney has been signaling that it wants to launch a flagship service for ESPN as part of its efforts to mix its sports and entertainment programming for a more general audience. While Disney’s primary programming is a powerful asset, it is quite narrow, focusing mainly on family-friendly programming. Disney has been seeking ways to expand its content footprint with more generally appealing programming for the last 5 years. Combining the brand power of its three key arms— the Disney stable, Hulu’s more general programming, and ESPN’s live sports programming— could be potent indeed.

The Bundling and Live Sports Trends

To date, Disney+ has 122.7M subscribers (excluding Hotstar), and ESPN+ has 25.6 M. However, they do not report on how many of these subscribers have opted for their bundle options. Disney is clearly hoping that dangling some of ESPN’s sports-centric content for general subscribers will boost that number.

 

This full integration of ESPN+ offerings into Disney+ bundles is also a reaction to the shelving of their planned joint venture (Venu Sports) with Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery earlier this year due to regulatory issues. The matter is still under appeal.

 

                                               

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is Kung Fu Panda 4 the Key to a Reinvigorated 2024 Box Office?

Image
 With Dune: Part Two having finally powered up the 2024 box office, it's time to build on that impetus if the wider box office recovery is to continue. There could be another strong contender lurking in the wings for this weekend’s releases- but it will doubtless surprise you to learn that this hope lies with the fourth installment of the animated Kung Fu Panda saga! Blake & Wang P.A. entertainment attorney Los Angeles , Brandon Blake, has more on this ironic twist for us.                                                                          Brandon Blake Two $40M Grosses on the Cards For the first time since July 2023 and the Barbenheimer dual release, we have a chance at not one, but two, films grossing over $40M this weekend. In fact, those figures may top $50M! While Dune: Part Two...
Read more

Netflix Ad Tier Turns in Fantastic Growth

Image
 What a difference half a year can make! With Netflix’s ad-supported subscription tier first launched only 18 months ago, the streamer has managed to nearly double its subscriber base since the start of 2024. Blake & Wang P.A. entertainment lawyer , Brandon Blake, fills in the details. Brandon Blake Impressive Subscriber Gains Netflix’s total subscribers for the ad-supported tier now number 40 million monthly active users. In January 2024, it was 23 million. The streamer was understandably gleeful to reveal this news at its first in-person Upfronts presentation in New York earlier this month. At its first-ever Upfronts presentation, which was held digitally in 2023, the ad tier had 5 million monthly active users.   Additionally, we were told that 40% of active signups now opt for the ad-supported plan, in countries where it is currently available. Of course, much of this can be attributed to a rather kind price ($7 domestically) for this tier, well below most of ...
Read more

Hulu on Disney+ is Officially Here

Image
While the Hulu on Disney+ Beta bundle has been live since last year, we have officially reached the point of full integration. Intriguingly, much of the executive focus on the new bundle has been around the technical advancements needed to unite the two platforms. You could take a look at entertainment lawyer Brandon Blake, from Blake & Wang P.A., looks in more depth at the united offering.                                              Brandon Blake Technical Advancements While few viewers are likely to know (or care, frankly) about the backstage technology that powers their viewing experience, Disney executives have been keen to hammer home the potential for happier, healthier subscriber engagement and retention with the new tech shift. They have gone as far as to call it the “most extensive technical advancement” since launch. At this point, it is clear that they ...
Read more