Disney combines Hulu and Disney Plus, will raise price of ad-free plans

Off the heels of Warner Bros. Discovery announcing the merging of merging of HBO Max and Discovery Plus, Disney will follow suit and merge two of its streaming platforms.

On Wednesday, Disney held its Q2 earnings call. During the call, Disney CEO Bob Iger revealed that the company plans to combine Disney Plus and Hulu into a “one-app experience.”

While we continue to offer Disney Plus, Hulu, and ESPN Plus as standalone options, this is a logical progression of our DTC [direct-to-consumer] offerings that will provide greater opportunities for advertisers while giving bundle subscribers access to more robust and streamlined content, resulting in greater audience engagement and ultimately leading to a more unified streaming experience

Before you get too excited about the move, there is a caveat. Along with bundling the platforms together, Iger also revealed that there will be a price increase for ad-free tier subscriptions.

Meanwhile, the pricing changes we’ve already implemented have proven successful, and we plan to set a higher price for our ad-free tier later this year to better reflect the value of our content offerings.

As of the time of this writing, an ad-free plan on Disney Plus costs $10.99. This subscription price was raised just last year, along with Disney adding an ad-supported tier. Although Iger mentioned a price hike is coming in the future, he didn’t say how much the new price will be.

The launch of the combined service is scheduled to happen by the end of the year. Disney will reportedly provide more information as we get closer to the combined app’s rollout.