In just five years, Disney has become one of the biggest names in streaming, and a large portion of their business has shifted to direct-to-consumer programming. After launching on November 12th, 2019, the Disney+ streaming service exploded shortly after due to the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020. As of right now, Disney states that their service has over 156 Million worldwide subscribers, just behind Amazon Prime, with 200 Million, and Netflix, with just over 247 Million.
After completing their acquisition of 20th Century Fox, they also acquired a majority ownership of Hulu, giving them a boost in the streaming wars. In addition to its ESPN+ sports device, the company is one of the largest streamers on the planet.
However, as time went on, certain other services that fell under Disney felt rather redundant and unnecessary, leading to Disney deciding to shut down multiple streaming apps. As of the 23rd of this month, multiple app services, including DisneyNow, FXNow, Freeform, ABC, and Nat Geo TV, have all been shut down in an effort for Disney to consolidate their streaming businesses.
DisneyNow, launched on September 29th, 2017, was an app that lets you watch multiple Disney Channel, Disney Junior, and Disney XD shows and other content. Much of that has been moved over to Disney+, making the app seem unneeded. The same goes for many of the other shuttered applications.
While this move is indeed somewhat helpful in trying to direct customers to their preferred way of viewing content, it does bring up the question of whether or not Disney will eventually finally fold both Hulu and ESPN+ into Disney+ proper into one application with multiple tabs directing viewers to specific content. 
While Disney is currently partnering with Warner Bros. Discovery in a new bundle that gives viewers access to Disney+, Hulu and Max, some speculate that WBD may wish to merge services eventually. Only time will tell.
What do you think? Was this a good move? Will you miss any of the now offline services like DisneyNow? Let us know your thoughts.
Source: WDWNT
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