Disney to Bundle 3 of Its Streaming Services for $12.99 Monthly

Disney plans to bundle streaming services Disney Plus, ESPN Plus and the ad-supported Hulu tier for $12.99 a month, starting in November, CEO Bob Iger said Tuesday during the company's Q3 earnings call with analysts. For Q3, Disney had revenue of $20.25 billion, up 33 percent. The results were the first full quarter since Disney closed on 21st Century Fox in March. Chief Financial Officer Christine McCarthy said a couple of Fox businesses underperformed, with Fox film results down due to X-Men: Dark Phoenix doing worse than expected. There also was an operating loss at Star, due largely to higher rights costs for sporting events, she said. Disney expects about $900 million in operating losses in Q4 in its direct-to-consumer business due to investment in ESPN Plus and Disney Plus and taking operational control of Hulu, McCarthy said. Iger said given the Fox films already in the pipeline, it could be a year or two before Disney starts putting its own thumbprint on that part of the business. Asked about a possible international rollout of Hulu, Iger said that it's being pursued. He said Disney Plus would launch with close to 300 films, ramping up to 400 relatively quickly, plus 7,500 episodes of Disney TV.