Hulu Updates Its User Interface, Aiming To Improve Film And TV Discovery

Dade Hayes
·2 min read

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Hulu has updated its user interface with the goal of improving content discovery and providing a more consistent experience across the other services included in its bundled offering with Disney+ and ESPN+.

The new look and feel starts Wednesday on Roku and Apple TV before rolling out on other platforms in the coming months.

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Operated jointly by multiple media companies since its 2007 launch, Hulu last year came under the control of Disney following its buyout of Comcast and acquisition of most of 21st Century Fox. Disney then integrated Hulu into a $13-a-month bundle with Disney+ and ESPN+ last fall, with the bundle helping drive subscriptions of all three services. As of March 31, Hulu reported 32.1 million total subscribers, including 3.3 million customers of its live TV package, up 27% from the same period in 2019.

“We listened to feedback from our viewers and heard they loved how easy it was to continue watching the shows and movies they love, but not as easy to discover new content,” Jim Denney, VP, Product Management, and Jason Wong, Director, Product Management, wrote in a blog post.

Given the strategic importance of the bundle, Denney and Wong said the new setup enables viewers to navigate through collections vertically and explore titles inside a collection by moving horizontally. “This navigation pattern is something our viewers are accustomed to and matches the navigation pattern across Disney+ and ESPN+,” they wrote, “making it easier for viewers who subscribe to the Disney bundle to switch between services and navigate with ease.”

Major categories like TV, Movies and Sports will be moved to the master navigation of the app, offering users “a clear pathway to find what they’re looking for” with fewer clicks, the execs added. Tile sizes will also

The changes come at a time when overall streaming is booming due to the combination of general viewership trends and the impact of COVID-19. It is also a time when several new services are hitting the market from media and tech companies looking to try to make up ground against Netflix.

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