Disney+, Hulu Merged App to Launch Next Month, Bob Iger Says::Disney will launch a beta test of an app next month that combines Disney+ and Hulu into a single experience, CEO Bob Iger said.

  • pete_the_cat@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    I worked at Disney+ until a few months ago (got laid off after 5 years, how nice of them), everything was still segmented internally. Even a year or more after the Hulu merger we still operated essentially as two separate companies. They did their thing and we did ours, practically no communication between the teams.

    • reddig33@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      They should keep it separate. If Disney was smart, they’d split into two companies. The Disney brand that owns family-oriented IP, and a more adult-oriented brand that owns all the other crap. There’s no need for Disney to own ESPN for example.

      • pete_the_cat@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        It all came from the Fox deal when Disney bought everything except Fox News for 71 billion. They needed content for Disney+ that appealed to adults. Hulu has also been rolled out to other countries and is known as Star,why the name change? Zero clue.

        • vzq@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          8 months ago

          Hulu has also been rolled out to other countries and is known as Star

          That explains a lot. I have been wondering WTF that was.

          • pete_the_cat@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            They may have given us an explanation for it, but I probably ignored it. Possibly something with trademarks and copyrights.

      • StraightArrow@feddit.de
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        8 months ago

        That’s a very reasonable point of view, but couldn’t they still achieve this by creating some filter that says “family” within the Disney+ app so that they can still isolate toons and family movies and series?

        However, it’s also true that my experience with all these sites is that content is poorly arranged and searchable, so keeping them separate might have simplified this

        • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          couldn’t they still achieve this by creating some filter that says “family” within the Disney+ app so that they can still isolate toons and family movies and series?

          They could, they have, and so has literally every other major streaming service.

          The rest of us are rightfully pissed off at the balkanization of content forcing us to pay for a hundred different subscriptions and this person is arguing that it must continue, lest easily filterable content exists on the same service 🤦

    • surge_1@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      There were some supremely dumb technical decisions made on the Disney side during that merger

      • pete_the_cat@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Yup, they thought they were on the top of the world during COVID, and then once people got out of the house and stopped binge watching everything for days on end the revenue started falling and the investors started losing their shit.

    • paraphrand@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      So what causes the terrible UIs on these apps? Is it all just in the name of feeling different from the others?

    • cm0002@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      There shouldn’t be any big tech breakups until the ISPs get broken up and forced to compete, they can move up from there

    • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Know of any app for android tv better than CloudStream? Showing me that stuff is available and then returning a “no links found” error when I try to play it is pissing me off big-time.

    • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Normally I’d be with you on that, but Disney already owned Hulu and the main problem making streaming worse than it used to is balkanization, so unless they’re gonna charge more than the combined current cost of both, I consider this a win.

  • gnuplusmatt@reddthat.com
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    8 months ago

    does this not just make disney+ like it is globally? where all the “hulu” content lives in its own section, just on ours its called Star

  • DarkShaggy@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    OMG the Hulu app is pure garbage why would you even want to be associated with it?!?!?!

    • SeaJ@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

      Have you used the Disney+ app? It’s a pain in the ass to find anything because there are basically no categories and nothing is alphabetical.