A Bigger Bundle

[silverscreenselect]

Disney, Hulu, and Max have announced their latest bundle, and it's a great deal for anyone having (or wanting) more than one of these services currently. You can purchase the bundle (with ads) for $16.99 a month or without ads for $29.99 a month. Max is not currently available in a bundle with any other service, but cable companies offer package deals of Max with other services. Picture and sound quality may be better with the premium option, which also offers the ability to download some programming.

Currently, Disney+ and Hulu are available (with ads) for $7.99 a month, while Max is $9.99 a month. A Disney/Hulu basic bundle is $9.99 a month. If you add ESPN+, it's $14.99 a month. The new Disney+, Hulu, and Max bundle does not include ESPN+. Anyone wanting that would need to go directly through ESPN (at $10.99 a month). People with existing subscriptions can switch to the bundle and get a pro rata adjustment. Since I've got the current Disney/Hulu/ESPN bundle and Max separately, it's an easy decision for me. ESPN+ has a lot of more obscure sporting events that aren't carried on other channels (if you're a fan of college basketball, you can see almost every Division I game). It's also got the various ESPN documentaries. What I enjoyed were the articles on the website that were exclusively for ESPN+ subscribers, but I can give them up for the extra savings I'm getting.

This package is something very different from the earlier Disney bundles. Disney, Hulu, and ESPN are all owned by the same parent company (Disney), while Max is owned by Time/Warner. So it's quite unusual for two rivals like this to offer bundle pricing.

[Bob Juch]

It's not ready for prime time.

I went to the Hulu website, and when I clicked on the SELECT button, nothing happened.

I went to the Max website, and when I clicked on the SELECT button, nothing happened.

I went to the Disney+ website, and when I clicked on the SELECT button, something popped up briefly, and then it took me to the Disney+ menu page. The only thing under ACCOUNT was to sign up for the Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN bundle.

[silverscreenselect]

It's not ready for prime time.

I went to the Hulu website, and when I clicked on the SELECT button, nothing happened.

I went to the Max website, and when I clicked on the SELECT button, nothing happened.

I went to the Disney+ website, and when I clicked on the SELECT button, something popped up briefly, and then it took me to the Disney+ menu page. The only thing under ACCOUNT was to sign up for the Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN bundle.

I get (or more accurately got) Max through DirectTV, so I was able to cancel that immediately. My current Hulu/Disney+/ESPN bundle is managed through Hulu, so I had to go there to change. It's just a matter of selecting the option you want to change to, either an upgrade or a downgrade. Since my current DirecTV is paid through the end of July, I'm going to wait until then to make the switch on Hulu, so I don't get double billed for Max for a few days.