The Disney+ streaming service is getting a major update that will dramatically expand the amount and type of content available on its platform in the U.K., Europe and other regions.
Until now, Disney+’s more mature content – such as The Bear, Shogun and Alien: Earth – has been distributed under the “Star” brand outside of the U.S. But with the update, it seems Disney+ is ditching Star and instead replacing it with Hulu, which is an extremely popular streaming service in the U.S.
According to a report by WhatHiFi, Disney+ has decided to bundle all of the shows and movies that were previously released by Star into the Hulu service. The update has also brought a new Hulu tab to the home screen, and clicking on this will bring up a list of content that’s exclusively from that service.
Disney, which operates both Disney+ and Hulu, is busy working on merging the two services and has said the newly combined streaming application will launch in the U.S. sometime in 2026. That announcement came after Disney acquired Hulu for around $8 billion earlier this year.
As such, the inclusion of the Hulu tab in the Disney+ service is more of a stopgap solution ahead of that broader integration. WhatHiFi said the Hulu tab first appeared in the U.S. a few months ago, and has now started appearing on devices in the U.K. and Europe following an update. However, it notes that not everyone may see it yet, as the update seems to be specific to Google TV devices at present, and there are no reports of it coming to other platforms, such as webOS or Tizen, just yet.
As part of the integration, Disney is also planning to roll out a major revamp of the Disney+ user interface. It’s unclear what the U.K. and European versions of the new Disney+ with Hulu app will look like, but some early images of the U.S. version have appeared in the wild. There’s a much bigger banner for featured content at the top of the menu, which seems to autoplay snippets of new movies and shows when the user hovers over them.
The new app will feature quick access buttons for the distinct services – Disney+, ESPN and Hulu – and there’s also a new For You tab, which we assume bundles a bunch of personalised content recommendations.
Meanwhile, Disney’s biggest franchises, such as Walt Disney classics, Star Wars, Pixar, Marvel and National Geographic, will all get their own content hubs in a different section of the home screen. Of course, we can’t say for sure if the U.K. version will look exactly the same as the new U.S. app, and we also have no clue as to when it might launch on this side of the Atlantic. But a major revamp does appear to be on the way.
