Credit: DisneyDisney will close down its Star+ streaming service in certain countries next year.
While Disney+ is its main focus right now, The Walt Disney Company actually operates multiple streaming platforms across the globe. These include Hulu, Disney+ Hotstar, ESPN+, NHL.tv, and Star+ – which will start to wind down operations in 2024, What’s On Disney Plus reports.
As of December 2023, Star+ is exclusively available in Latin America. The service features Disney’s more “mature” content, such as TV shows and films released via Freeform, 20th Television Animation, Searchlight Television, 20th Century Studios, and National Geographic.
In the second quarter of 2024, however, Disney will integrate content found on Star+ into Disney+, combining the two platforms and permanently shuttering Star+.
“This integration will allow the unparalleled strength of our content to be available in a single application, providing an improved and superior experience, as well as simplified access to subscribers, who are always at the center of our strategies,” said Diego Lerner, President of The Walt Disney Company Latin America, in a public statement shared by What’s On Disney Plus.
This will align with how other locations currently access Star+ content. In the likes of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and the United Arab Emirates, audiences can already watch all the movies and TV shows found on Star+ – such as Only Murders in the Building, Family Guy, Bob’s Burgers, and Modern Family – through the “Star” section of Disney+.
Earlier this month, Disney made a similar move to begin combining Disney+ and Hulu content in the United States after purchasing Comcast’s stakes in Hulu for $8.6 billion. Disney+ will officially launch its own Hulu section in March 2024. Despite Disney CEO Bob Iger repeatedly discussing plans for a “one-app experience,” however, it seems that there are currently no plans to close Hulu.
Do you want Disney to combine Disney+ and Hulu or would you prefer that it keeps the apps separate? Let us know in the comments!