Disney+ could one day include both Hulu and ESPN+ under its umbrella. Disney already offers a bundle of their streaming service, but CEO Bob Chapek said combining of all the services under the Disney+ umbrella is “possible.”
Chapek made the comments on an earnings report last week, a lucrative report at that. Revenues for Mickey Mouse and Co. rose by 45% year-over-year due to theme parks starting to rebound and steaming services booming. Disney is hot on the heels of Netflix, boasting 174 million subscribers across Hulu, Disney+, and ESPN+. Disney+ in particular doubled their subscriber base, while ESPN+ grew by 75%.
“Higher advertising revenue from the return of live sports programming was more than offset by higher sports programming costs,” Disney noted in the call.
Disney has been steadfast in its promotion of the bundle, especially on ESPN and live sports broadcasts. Pair that with an equally strong push on Hulu advertising, and the whole project finds itself in a great position.
“So far, [the Disney bundle has] worked really, really well,” Chapek said. “Is there an opportunity for improvement by considering something different going forward? Possibly, but we’re going to continue to learn.”
Chapek highlighted the company’s efforts to promote the bundle. They have built an entire ad campaign around the offering, with Dave Bautista playing the role of “The Streamer,” a woodsman who uses all three apps to stay entertained in the wilderness.
The current bundle of all three services costs $13.99 per month. Paying for all three individually costs around $20 per month. Disney smartly recognizes that they need to incentivize subscription numbers if they want to catch up with Netflix. They aren’t too far in the rearview mirror less than two years since launching Disney+ in November 2019.
Netflix boasts a strong catalog of original material but when it comes to live content, sports are king. Disney has a big head start on that front, we’ll see if their full inventory of entertainment offerings can push them past Netflix.