Two entertainment giants are coming together to form an unexpected alliance, creating a competitive new bundle that could finally dethrone Netflix as the king of streaming.
Disney will combine its two hero streaming platforms – Disney+ and Hulu – with Max, the streaming home for Warner Bros. Discovery content. If you want to know more about this new offer, we’ve answered all your questions below.
When is the Disney+, Hulu and Max bundle launching?
According to official comms, Disney and Warner want to launch the bundle this summer. However, no specific date has yet been confirmed.
What will the bundle be called?
At this stage, we don’t know – but we’ll let you know what to look out for as more details will be announced in the coming months.
In which countries is the Disney+, Hulu and Max bundle launching?
Hulu is a US-exclusive platform, so we can assume that this bundle is limited to America.
Max is available in Europe and Latin America, but not in the UK. In addition, Hulu content is typically on international versions of Disney+ via the Star brand.
We may see future bundles in different countries, but that doesn’t appear to be a priority for the companies at this time.
How much will the Disney+, Hulu and Max bundle cost?
Unfortunately, neither company has revealed exact prices yet. That said, there will be both ad-supported and ad-free options available. Therefore, we can look at current costs to try and predict what they may be.
Here’s what the current Disney bundles cost:
- Disney Bundle Duo Basic (Disney+ and Hulu with ads): $9.99 per month
- Disney Bundle Duo Premium (Disney+ and Hulu without ads): $19.99 per month
- Disney Bundle Trio Basic (Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ with ads): $14.99 per month
- Disney Bundle Trio Premium (Disney+ and Hulu without ads and ESPN+ with ads): $24.99 per month
And this is how much customers pay for Max:
- Max (with ads): $9.99 per month
- Max (without ads): $15.99 per month
- Max Ultimate (without ads and 4K supported content): $19.99 per month
The offer that gives us the best idea of what to expect is the Disney Bundle Trio Basic, as this includes a third streaming service with Disney+ and Hulu: ESPN+.
By itself, ESPN+ costs $10.99 per month, which is $1 more than the ad-supported version of Max.
Therefore, it would make sense to also price the ad-supported bundle of Disney+, Hulu and Max at around $14.99 per month.
The ad-free bundle is harder to predict, as Disney doesn’t yet offer a similar bundle with all ad-free services. Plus, Max has two ad-free tiers: the standard one (with 1080p content), and the Ultimate version (with support for 4K).
Martyn Casserly
Presuming that the bundle includes the cheaper version of Max (keeping 4K content for standalone subscribers), we’d estimate that it would be more expensive than the current ad-free Disney+ bundle – probably more likely to be around the $30 per month mark.
These estimations hinge on the current prices – there’s a chance that the companies could increase their subscription costs to account for these new bundles.
We should learn more in the coming months.
Which TV shows will be available in the Disney+, Hulu and Max bundle?
As far as we know, there will be no restrictions on the content included on the bundle. It will include series and movies from the likes of ABC, DC, Discovery, Disney, Food Network, FX, Hulu, Marvel, Pixar and Warner Bros.
That means you’ll be able to stream the likes of House of the Dragon, X-Men ‘97, Only Murders of the Building, The White Lotus, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, The Last of Us, The Bear, Bluey, Succession, Shogun and Doctor Who.
In addition, Disney+ will be offering some live sports before the end of the year, so this may also be included in the bundle. Users must pay extra on Max to get sports via Discovery+.
Will the Disney+ and Max interfaces be merged into one app?
In March, Disney+ folded the Hulu interface into its library, so all content could be accessed in one place.
No promise of this has been confirmed for the new trio bundle. However, customers will be able to sign up via all three platforms. We imagine that both Disney and Warner will still want to market their own streaming services, so it’d be surprising if all the content was folded into one interface.
Why are Disney and Warner launching this new streaming bundle?
If we just take into account official communications, here are the official quotes from each company respectively:
On the heels of the very successful launch of Hulu on Disney+, this new bundle with Max will offer subscribers even more choice and value. This incredible new partnership puts subscribers first, giving them access to blockbuster films, originals, and three massive libraries featuring the very best brands and entertainment in streaming today.
Joe Earley, President, Direct to Consumer, Disney Entertainment
This new offering delivers for consumers the greatest collection of entertainment for the best value in streaming, and will help drive incremental subscribers and much stronger retention. Offering this unprecedented entertainment value for fans across all the complimentary genres these three services offer, presents a powerful new roadmap for the future of the industry.
JB Perrette, CEO and President, Global Streaming and Games, Warner Bros. Discovery
The final quote very much implies that this bundle is being created to drive more subscribers, which according to IGN is hugely important, with both services reporting subscriber losses of millions in 2023 and 2024. Ultimately, it’s a move back towards traditional cable TV – and most likely an attempt to finally challenge Netflix once and for all.