Global Hulu Launch on Disney+ Set for October 8th

October 8th Marks the Global Launch of Hulu on Disney+

The global reach of the Hulu brand will expand significantly starting October 8th. On that date, Hulu will become the new worldwide General Entertainment brand featured on Disney+ in international markets, officially replacing the existing Star brand.

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In anticipation of a fully integrated, unified app experience next year, this change initiates further integration of Hulu across the Disney+ app. Users will see an ongoing series of iterative product updates on the homepage and throughout the app over the coming weeks and months. These updates will include design and navigation enhancements, resulting in a more dynamic and intuitive viewing experience.

Here’s an early look at what’s coming to Disney+:

Simpler Navigation and UX Design

Making the user experience more intuitive

A new navigation bar has been added to the top of the homepage. The “For You” tab is the first screen subscribers will see when they click into Disney+. It’s the new homebase for recommended viewing, powered by an updated algorithm that learns user preferences over time. There are also tabs for Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN, depending on the user’s subscription, making it easier to explore each catalog individually.

The Live hub in the main vertical navigation takes you straight into the latest live news, sports, and events, as well as our 24/7 Streams.

We’re also adding new badging tags like “Season Finale,” “New Series,” and “New Movie” to show what’s unique and timely right now.

More Personalized Recommendations

Helping users easily get to the content they want and discover the content that is most relevant to them

We’ve been hard at work behind the scenes to evolve and advance our personalized video algorithm that will learn and improve over time. This will power our recommendation and personalization engine for the content we surface to users across all touchpoints on the platform, especially in the all-new “For You” tab.

To ensure users are watching in their own profile, we’ll make Profiles more prominent across the UI. From here, users will find titles personally recommended for them based on their unique viewing habits. 

More Dynamic and Visual Homepage

A more modern design that brings our characters and stories front and center

The new design is more modern and intuitive so users can find and discover the characters and stories they love. This includes a new video display in the Hero carousel and a more dynamic brand row, showcasing the latest titles from each brand. We’ve also updated our content sets to showcase more cinematic poster-style artwork.

More to Come

While several of these design updates will apply across living room screens, we’re also putting a lot of thought into enhancing the mobile experience.

Widgets are launching on iOS, which will add another front door to take users directly into our programming with one click. And in the year ahead, we’re looking forward to introducing mobile-first and mobile-exclusive experiences that will expand our reach and engage with new audiences.

These enhancements are just the beginning, with additional updates planned in the lead-up to the launch of a unified app experience next year.