“Get the perfect streaming pair” is a tagline Disney uses to promote the bundled combination of Disney+ and Hulu. As it turns out, the compatibility of these services is more than just hype, according to a new Luminate offering that provides unprecedented insight into U.S. SVOD audiences.
Luminate’s Streaming Viewership (M) now includes demographic data that sheds light on not just what programming is being watched but who is watching. Leveraging proprietary modeling and Experian data, Luminate can now include age and gender breakdowns for viewers of streaming original and library titles.
Those findings demonstrate how uniquely complementary a kid-friendly streaming service such as Disney+ happens to be when paired with the more adult, general entertainment Hulu. With the latter embedded in the former’s app as of last year, the two have proven to be one of Disney’s potent bundle offerings, accounting for a combined 176.3 million subscribers as of the fiscal second quarter ending March 29.
SV(M)’s new demographic capabilities reveal Hulu and Disney+ have nearly symmetrical gender skews, with Hulu 56% female and Disney+ 56% male. Hulu originals, including The Handmaid’s Tale and Paradise, drive its female skew, while Disney+ “fanboy” shows such as Andor and Daredevil: Born Again lean male.
As for age, it’s no surprise that Disney+ appeals to children with the likes of Pixar original animated series Win or Lose. Hulu, meanwhile, brings the Disney bundle the important 18-34 audience, performing better with young adults than streamers Paramount+ and Prime Video, which skew older for SVOD originals.
The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives is an interesting case study in how Hulu attracts younger viewers. It’s an unstructured reality show that found its cast on #MomTok, a viral group of Mormon mothers on TikTok, and then young adult fans followed them from TikTok to premium SVOD, helping to drive the 18-34 audience to the series.
Some of these Millennial and Gen Z viewers are surely parents, with their kids hooked on Disney+’s deep library of family titles, while the adult content on Hulu keeps the moms and dads engaged.
While most streamers don’t have multiple owned-and-operated services in the way Disney does, they could learn from the strategy of counterprogramming for audiences as SVOD bundles become more prevalent. Dig deeper into those potential synergies with Streaming Viewership (M), where audience demographic data is now accessible in the platform.
