In a streaming industry first, two rival companies have announced they will offer their streaming services in one bundle for US customers. Disney will combine its Disney+ and Hulu services with Warner Bros. Discovery"s Max service sometime later this summer.
Most of the details about this new bundle deal were not revealed in Disney"s press release, such as a specific launch date and, most importantly, the pricing for the bundle. Disney did state that there will be both ad-free and ad-based plans for this bundle.
Currently, Disney+ costs $7.99 a month with ads and $13.99 a month for an ad-free plan. Hulu costs $7.99 a month with ads and $17.99 a month without ads. There"s already a bundle for Disney+ and Hulu that costs $9.99 a month with ads and $19.99 a month without ads. Plans for Max start at $9.99 a month with ads, $15.99 a month without ads, and $19.99 a month without ads with 4K UHD streaming support.
Hopefully, this new Disney+-Hulu-Max bundle will offer a lot more in terms of savings compared to getting each one separately. We also hope there"s an option for annual pricing.
People who purchase access to both Disney+ and Hulu in the US can already stream all of Hulu"s content in the Disney+ app, but not vice versa. Disney just announced earlier this week that it will be adding a way for ESPN+ subscribers to access content from that service directly in the Disney+ app in late 2024.
Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery have already announced plans to team up with Fox Sports to launch a new, but currently unnamed sports-themed streaming service in late 2024. It will merge all the content shown on the ESPN, Fox Sports, and TNT Networks cable networks into one streaming service. Pricing for that service has also yet to be revealed.