Disney and Warner Bros. to offer a Disney+/Hulu/Max bundle
Last week, Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery announced that starting later in 2024, Disney+ will offer a bundle of Disney+, Hulu, and Max. No pricing is known at this time, though I assume it won’t cost more than $36 a month (the cost of the existing ad-free Disney+/Hulu bundle and ad-free Max service combined).
This Disney/WB joint bundle isn’t completely without precedent. For some years now, Hulu has offered HBO Max/Max as an optional add-on, an option that’s continued even after Disney bought Fox (and a majority ownership of Hulu). What’s surprising is that Max is now being promoted on an equal basis alongside Disney+ and Hulu as a bundle.
Warner Bros. certainly stands to gain out of this deal. While I consider Max as one of the streaming wars “winners” (by virtue of HBO’s dedicated viewers and Warner’s catalog, if nothing else), it definitely isn’t as popular as Disney+ or Hulu. Globally, Disney+ has 153.6 million subscribers, while Max has 76.8 million, or about half of that. Within the US, Hulu has 50.2 million subscribers, while Disney+ has 54 million subscribers. (I couldn’t find US estimates for Max.) While Warner’s stating it now has nearly 100 million subscribers, that number’s for all the major Warner Bros. services combined: Max, HBO cable subscribers, and Discovery+.
Still, a combined Disney+ and Max bundle offers content from two of the biggest pop culture presences in the country. When people think of a Western animated cartoon, there’s probably a 70-80% chance they’ll think of something from Disney or Warner Bros. Both studios’ animation content ranges from Mickey Mouse, “Monsters, Inc.” and Bugs Bunny to “The Simpsons,” “Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur,” and Scooby-Doo. For superheroes, it’s pretty much a 90-to-nearly-100% chance one will think of a character from Disney (who owns Marvel) or Warner Bros. (who owns DC Comics), characters like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles aside.