Fox and Disney plan to deliver a bundle of channels to Hulu

By Danette Chavez | May 2, 2016 | 1:33pm

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Bundles are the way of the future, according to the past and The Wall Street Journal, which reports that Hulu owners Fox and Disney are planning to bring some of their broadcasting and cable content to the streaming service. The bundle will include live programming from FX, ESPN, ABC, and any other channel owned by Fox and Disney. Hulu already offers “night-after” viewing of popular series like Jane The Virgin and Last Man On Earth, but this new package would also give subscribers the opportunity to watch college football in between episodes of The Americans (or vice versa). There’s currently no name for the bundle service, but it’s expected to launch early next year for about $40 a month.

Despite ostensibly being one of the reasons why people are cutting the cord in the first place, the bundle model has crept its way into the streaming platform, in part because it’s become increasingly complicated and expensive to subscribe to so many different services in order to get your Seinfeld fix while also keeping up with Game Of Thrones. Hulu is co-owned and managed by Disney and Fox, but Comcast/NBCUniversal is the third (silent) owner, so this move to cut out the middleman, i.e., the cable/satellite companies, should make for some fascinating boardroom conversation.