Disney quietly answered a nagging question this week: Hulu isn’t being quietly retired — it’s being exported. Beginning October 8, Disney will roll the Hulu brand out across Disney+ in international markets, replacing the Star hub that has been the home for Disney’s more adult, general-entertainment catalog outside the U.S. That change is explicitly a warm-up act for a fully unified Disney+ app the company plans to launch next year.

What’s actually changing on October 8

For many Disney+ subscribers outside the United States, the immediate difference will be cosmetic and navigational: the Star tile — the catch-all for ABC, FX, 20th Century Studios, Hulu originals and other non-family fare — will be rebranded as Hulu. That tile will sit alongside Disney’s other franchise tiles (Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars) and, depending on your subscriptions, you’ll soon also see dedicated places to access Hulu and ESPN content. Disney says the rollout will come with homepage and navigation updates (profile features, “badge” labels such as “Season Finale” or “New Movie,” and improved recommendation signals), plus mobile touches like iOS widgets that jump you straight into a show.

Why Disney is doing this

Two big forces pushed the move. First, Disney completed its long-running buyout of Hulu earlier this year, meaning it now controls the brand outright — and can use it however it wants. The transaction that wrapped up in June closed a chapter on a nearly two-decade joint-venture arrangement with Comcast.

Second, Disney’s leadership has been explicit about simplification: unify the user experience, combine advertising inventory, and make it easier to sell a single, wide-ranging streaming product. CEO Bob Iger has called Hulu “our global general entertainment brand” and told investors that replacing Star with Hulu was coming “in the fall” as part of a sequence of product updates that will culminate in a single app next year. The company is hoping the move reduces churn and gives advertisers a bigger cross-platform audience to target.

What this means for users

Short term: you’ll still be able to watch the same shows and movies that lived under Star — the content is not disappearing. The change is primarily branding and navigation: a different tile, perhaps improved surfacing of timely content, and a promise of tighter personalization. Long term: Disney has said the standalone Hulu app will be folded into Disney+ as part of the unified app experience slated for 2026, which raises questions about how subscriptions and bundles are packaged (and priced) going forward.

That timing comes at a sensitive moment. Disney is already moving prices in several markets: the company announced another round of subscription price increases this month that will take effect later in October in some territories. Changes to packaging and a wider global push for Hulu could mean different ad loads, new bundles and shifting price comparisons for customers used to the Star label.

India and other exceptions: it’s complicated

Not every market maps neatly onto Disney’s global playbook. In India, for instance, the “Star” name is deeply associated with Star India — the regional TV network and the former Hotstar product — and Disney’s streaming footprint there already looks different from other countries because of joint ventures and local deals (including the Jio/Hotstar arrangements and the JioHotstar rebrand). That local complexity is exactly why Disney’s announcement was careful: it says Hulu will replace Star “in international markets,” but it has not bluntly said Star will be retired everywhere (and local partners may keep different branding). Expect region-by-region details and timing to vary.

A brief history refresher (because it matters)

Hulu launched in 2007 as a U.S. video site and grew into a streaming service with a heavy emphasis on current TV, originals and later live TV add-ons. Disney became the majority owner after buying Fox’s entertainment assets in 2019, but Comcast retained a minority stake until a valuation dispute that was only resolved this summer — a legal and accounting dance that ended with Disney paying to complete its buyout. That full control is what enables Disney to decide Hulu’s fate internationally.

The business bet — bigger ad stack, simpler product, higher margins

Condensing brands under a single app and a single recommendation engine is an operations play: fewer products to maintain, one advertising stack to monetize, and a clearer story for partners and advertisers. Disney has signaled it expects better engagement and “greater advertising revenue potential” from a unified platform. But the bet isn’t guaranteed: consumers who prize choice or who resent price hikes might vote with their wallets, and any misstep migrating user profiles, saved lists, or local content licenses could create friction.

Risks and the political moment

This rebrand arrives amid a rough news cycle for Disney: high-profile controversies, subscriber churn spikes in some regions after corporate missteps, and the usual scrutiny over how big media companies handle content moderation and political pressure. All of that can amplify the optics of product changes even if the product itself is sound. In short, technically straightforward, politically sensitive.

What to watch next

• October 8: the first public rollouts of the Hulu tile on Disney+. See whether the change is purely cosmetic or accompanied by real usability improvements.
• October 21 (where it applies): some markets will see price adjustments that could change the cost calculus for bundles.
• 2026: the promised unified Disney+ app. That’s the bigger architectural change — and the real test of whether Disney can deliver a single app that keeps both family-friendly Disney fans and Hulu’s general-audience viewers happy.

If you were worried Hulu was about to vanish into the Disney+ mothership — breathe easy, for now. Disney is not killing Hulu; it’s moving it. The company wants one global general-entertainment label that plays well with its family brands and live-sports ambitions. For viewers, that means a new name in the app, possible homepage tweaks that surface more timely content, and — depending on where you live — new prices or bundles to reckon with. For the industry, it’s another step toward consolidation: fewer apps, larger catalogs and more muscle to sell ads and bundles at scale. Whether that’s better for consumers will depend on execution — and on whether Disney keeps the promises it’s made about personalization, choice and price.