Credit: ABCMarvel, Stranger Things, Star Wars, Wednesday, and more.
Ever since its 2019 debut, The Walt Disney Company and entertainment industry specialists have been laser-focused on the running, operation, and profitability of Disney+. Earlier this year, the House of Mouse outlined its current position with its popular streaming service.
Disney is proving that its creative magic extends well beyond the big screen. According to Nielsen, seven of the ten most-watched shows of 2025 streamed on Disney+ or Hulu, while Bluey dominated once again as the most-streamed show in the U.S., racking up an astonishing 45 billion minutes viewed for the second consecutive year. ABC also held strong in linear television, taking the top six spots for Adults 18–49 with hits like High Potential, Abbott Elementary, and Dancing with the Stars.
Disney CEO Bob Iger and Disney Studios chairman Alan Bergman highlighted that the company’s portfolio spans critically acclaimed films, popular television series, award-winning news, and top-tier sports programming. “With audience and critical favorites across film and television, combined with our leading portfolio of sports offerings and award-winning news programming, we offer consumers a powerful streaming proposition,” they said in the recent Q1 executive summary.
The pair emphasized Disney’s push for international growth, pointing to strong results from investments in local content. They also confirmed that Disney+ is getting a fresh round of product enhancements designed to make the platform more engaging and user-friendly.
Iger and Hugh Johnston outlined how experimentation remains central to Disney’s streaming strategy. Upcoming initiatives include AI-powered planning tools and video generators aimed at improving advertiser engagement. They also noted that short-form and vertical video experiences are in development, and that Disney+ will soon feature a curated slate of content created with Sora AI following a new licensing deal with OpenAI.
“These efforts are shaping a more personalized streaming experience and positioning us to deliver greater value to consumers,” the executives said, signaling Disney’s ongoing commitment to keeping fans engaged across every screen.
Disney+ To Merge With Netflix and More in 2026
In a move that genuinely reshapes the entertainment landscape, Sky UK and Ireland has unveiled a sweeping new streaming bundle that brings Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max, and Hayu together under one single Sky TV subscription, a proposition that directly addresses the subscription fatigue that has defined the streaming era.
Starting from around £24 per month for new customers, Sky’s revamped Ultimate TV tier will combine its own channels and originals with Netflix’s vast slate of global hits and Disney+’s powerhouse franchises, all housed within the Sky OS interface. For viewers accustomed to juggling multiple apps, passwords, and monthly payments, this signals a notable shift toward consolidation at a time when streaming fragmentation has reached a tipping point.
“This marks a new era for Sky and NOW. In a world-first, we’re bringing together Sky, Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max, and Hayu into a single Sky TV subscription,” said Sophia Ahmad, Chief Consumer Officer at Sky. “Nowhere else offers this breadth of incredible entertainment in a fully integrated experience, with everything customers love watching side by side so viewers can jump from show to show with ease.”
Netflix’s inclusion is particularly significant. The platform that helped redefine home entertainment with binge culture and original programming remains one of the most in-demand services, and folding it into a broader pay-TV ecosystem represents a continued evolution of its distribution strategy. Rather than operating entirely standalone, Netflix now sits comfortably alongside premium linear and on-demand content, accessible through a unified search and recommendation system that keeps its series and films as discoverable as ever.
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Disney+, meanwhile, is central to the appeal of this new bundle, and the timing is strategic. From March 2026, the ad-supported Disney+ tier will be included within Sky’s offering, following a new multi-year agreement between the two companies. The deal also restores a Disney-branded linear presence in UK homes with the launch of a dedicated Disney+ Cinema channel for Sky Cinema subscribers, marking the first time in several years that Disney content has returned to a traditional channel format in the region. It’s a notable development as Disney continues to recalibrate its streaming and distribution strategy.
“We’ve grown Disney+ in the UK into our largest market across Europe over the past six years, and Sky is the perfect partner for our next wave of growth in the UK and Ireland,” explained Karl Holmes (General Manager, Disney+, The Walt Disney Company EMEA). “This agreement gives millions of Sky customers a simple, seamless way to enjoy all the great stories that Disney+ offers, and opens up a substantial new audience for content creators and advertisers.”
The broader 2026 picture for Disney+ makes the integration even more compelling. The platform is entering the year with an expanding slate of originals and franchise continuations, reinforcing its position as a cornerstone of the streaming market. At a time when the service has been making headlines for refining its global content approach and doubling down on major IP, being embedded within a larger subscription framework could help widen its reach among more traditional pay-TV audiences who may not have subscribed independently.
HBO Max will also join the package from its UK and Ireland launch on March 26, 2026, with the ad-supported tier included, while Hayu will roll out in full later in the year. For Sky customers using Sky Stream, Sky Glass, or Sky Q, the experience promises full integration: unified search, aggregated recommendations, and shared “continue watching” functionality designed to blur the lines between platforms. Existing Disney+ and HBO Max subscribers will even have the option to migrate their accounts to Sky, retaining their profiles in the process.
In essence, Sky is positioning this as a solution to modern subscription overload, a single point of access that combines some of the industry’s most recognisable streaming brands. Whether this marks the beginning of a broader bundling renaissance remains to be seen, but for now, it presents a notable attempt to simplify an increasingly complex entertainment ecosystem while keeping Netflix and Disney+ firmly at its core.
Back in the United States this year, The Walt Disney Company will fold its Hulu offering into Disney+, streamlining its subscription for domestic users.
How do you feel about this world-first offering coming to Sky UK and Ireland? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments down below!