Hulu on Disney Plus Launches in the US

Disney’s merged app has arrived. Sarah Tew/CNET

Disney on Wednesday launched the full version of its “Hulu on Disney Plus” experience in the US for bundle subscribers. If you noticed the influx of Hulu content to your Disney Plus app a few months ago, you’re going to see Hulu content showing up in places it wasn’t before.

“During the beta, the Hulu content was purposefully isolated to the Hulu Hub,” Joe Earley, president of direct-to-consumer for Disney Entertainment, said in a Disney press release, “but now it will be fully integrated into Bundle subscribers’ homepages.”

Like a Disney Channel crossover episode, Hulu titles landed on the Disney Plus app in December for Disney bundle subscribers, or those who use a linked email for their standalone subscriptions to both services.

During that beta period, customers saw a Hulu tile on the homepage that contained a stash of movies and series from Hulu’s library, known as the Hulu Hub. With the full rollout, Hulu content is no longer confined to that hub and is now “integrated into recommendations, sets, and collections” across Disney Plus apps, according to the Disney release.

According to the company, the launch also brings improvements to the Disney Plus app in areas like personalization, viewing experience and search. The app features a new color, “Aurora,” which draws from Hulu’s green and Disney Plus’ blue.

Hulu and Disney Plus continue to exist as separate offerings. Prices start at $8 a month for Disney Plus with ads and $8 a month for Hulu with ads, and the cheapest bundle with ad-supported versions of both services is $10 a month.

The beta version notably didn’t include every title you’d find on Hulu, because of licensing restrictions, and that continues to be the case with the full version, according to Variety. Another continuing trend is that if you have a Hulu Plus Live TV subscription, you can watch live channels only in the Hulu app, according to the entertainment publication.

Disney’s merging of Disney Plus and Hulu echoes streamers like Max, which last year united the HBO Max and Discovery Plus libraries. You can still adjust parental controls if you don’t want younger members of your household to see the Hulu content that is now outside the Hulu Hub.

Stay tuned for our hands-on test of the integrated app, and read more on Disney’s most recent price increases.