Hulu Standalone App Shutting Down in 2026 – Here’s What Will Happen Next

Today, Disney announced Hulu’s standalone streaming app is on death row. The company will kill off the app in 2026, folding all of the content into the Disney+ app. The Hulu name will refer to the mature content on Disney+.

This news has international implications as well. Outside the U.S., mature content on Disney+ appears under the “Star” brand. Moving forward, Star will be rebranded as Hulu.

What Will Happen to the Disney Bundle?

It’s unclear. Hulu subscribers will become Disney+ subscribers, but we don’t know if you can opt out of the kid stuff on Disney+ for a lower price or if (like Netflix) everyone will get jammed with the full library.

What Will Happen to Hulu + Live TV?

It seems like Hulu + LIve TV will go away, replaced by Fubo, which Disney is acquiring. 

Once the shift is complete, Fubo may become the only live TV option Disney operates. It’s likely the company will still continue to bundle Disney+ (which will include Hulu) with Fubo.

Hulu + Live TV has 4.3 million subscribers, which seems like a lot of people to anger. Fubo (which is stupidly expensive) has around 1.5 million subscribers. So it seems weird Disney would kill off the more popular brand name for something one-third the size.

So maybe a new-look Fubo would offer more tiers of service? Maybe Hulu + Live TV gets rebranded as Disney+ Live TV?

None of the analysts on the Disney earnings call asked CEO Bob Iger about this and the company did not issue a news release, so the future remains clouded.

Will Prices Change?

It seems inevitable there will be a change in the pricing structure. Today, Iger said that Disney Bundle customers will be able to access ESPN’s full content through the Disney+ app. So we know ESPN will exist as an entity apart from Disney+. But the price for the future configuration is hard to guess.

The most likely possibility is that the company keeps its pricing similar to its existing bundles. The Duo Basic (Hulu + Disney+ with ads) just becomes Disney+ Basic for the same bundle price: $10.99. And the ad-free combo may continue to be $19.99.

The price would jump if you add either ESPN Unlimited or ESPN Select (currently called ESPN+).

Is This Good or Bad for Cord-Cutters?

Well, it’ll be simpler. There’s something to be said for that.

But at Streaming Smarter, we always advocate for choice, and killing off the Hulu app takes that away from consumers. I think Fubo is a dumb product and a dumb brand, so it would be weird for Disney to throw their hat in with that label. If a live TV service disappears from the competition entirely, that means the remaining providers will be able to raise prices even higher.

Less choice and less competition are always bad for consumers, but “bad for consumers” seems to be the trend in 2025.