In a Monday LinkedIn post, a former vice president at Hulu lamented Disney’s decision to shut down the iconic Hulu app and fully merge Hulu’s offerings with Disney+, marking the end of an influential chapter in streaming history. Ben Smith, who worked at Hulu between 2015 and 2018 as the company’s senior vice president of experience, leading the development of Hulu’s product strategy and customer experience, said he didn’t have enough positive things to say about his former coworkers and Hulu’s culture in general.
“Lots of companies talk about caring about their customers, Hulu really did. In a visceral way,” Smith wrote. “A lot of companies say they ‘work hard and play hard.’ Hulu really walked the walk.”
“Sometimes the good guys don’t win,” he added. “RIP.”
Smith, who helped shape the Hulu app and oversaw everything related to the viewer experience at Hulu, struck an emotional note among colleagues and fans of the once-giant streaming company as Disney prepares to sunset Hulu’s stand-alone platform beginning in 2026, following its recent acquisition of full ownership of the service from Comcast.
Hulu’s streaming legacy
Hulu launched in 2007 as a joint venture between NBC Universal, 21st Century Fox, and Providence Equity Partners; Disney joined later, in 2009.
Hulu was designed to respond to changing viewer habits and challenge early disrupters such as Netflix—to give the linear broadcasters a foothold in the streaming world, essentially. Hulu’s app became well regarded for its user-friendly interface and innovative feature set, frequently winning praise for accessibility and content discovery. Over its life span, Hulu established a reputation for original programming, including critical and commercial successes including The Handmaid’s Tale, Ramy, and Only Murders in the Building.
But Disney’s stewardship of Hulu was years in the making. The company assumed majority control of Hulu in 2019 when it purchased 21st Century Fox for $71.3 billion, followed by the purchase of remaining stakes from AT&T and Comcast. Disney finalized its acquisition of Comcast’s share in June 2025, paying around $9 billion after a contentious valuation process that ultimately involved an arbitrator. Fortune’s Shawn Tully reported that the complicated deal was pivotal to Bob Iger’s turnaround plan, after the boomerang CEO returned to the corner office, with the recent announcement marking the culmination of Disney’s long plan to unify its direct-to-consumer strategy, combining the audiences and content of Hulu, Disney+, and ESPN+.
Hulu will live on
While the stand-alone Hulu app will finally sunset in 2026, Iger said the Hulu brand and catalogue will live on as a central entertainment hub within the Disney+ platform. Customers will still be able to subscribe to Hulu’s content—ranging from originals and network hits to live TV—either independently or as part of a bundle with Disney+ and ESPN+. But the way users access shows will fundamentally change: Disney promises the new unified app will deliver “an impressive package of entertainment,” with deeper personalization and enhanced live sports offerings.
That said, among streaming insiders and longtime viewers and subscribers, many see the death of the Hulu app as losing an icon of sorts of the early streaming-wars era. “Never forget that Hulu was originally free,” one commenter wrote on Reddit. “I was in the Hulu beta,” another said. “RIP.”
To be clear, Hulu as a service is not disappearing. It will likely grow internationally as Hulu replaces the “Star” tile on Disney+ this fall, but it certainly represents the closing of a door. Hulu was a transformative force, opening a larger battle for streaming dominance. So while the app will be gone soon, its cultural impact will continue to be felt.
Disney and Smith did not respond to requests for comment.
For this story, Fortune used generative AI to help with an initial draft. An editor verified the accuracy of the information before publishing.
