Star (stylized as ST★R) is an over-the-top content brand owned by Disney Streaming.Launched on 23 February 2021, Star primarily operated as a content hub on Disney+ in countries outside of the United States, and now exclusively operates as a content hub on Disney+ in Japan.
Star's content is similar to that of the Disney-owned U.S. streaming service Hulu; it includes films and television series that fall outside of the core Disney+ content brands, including original productions from Hulu, ABC, FX, and Freeform, and content from the libraries of 20th Century Studios and its subsidiaries, ABC Signature, Touchstone Pictures, and Hollywood Pictures among others.Disney CEO Bob Chapek stated that the "Star" brand was used instead of Hulu because it was more recognizable in international markets.
In August 2021, Disney launched the Star brand in Latin and South America as a separate subscription service known as Star+
, which also included sports content from
ESPN Latin America
and
Brasil
, and other third-party content.
Star+ was discontinued in 2024, with its content merged into Disney+ under the Star brand as in other markets.
In 2023, after Disney acquired Comcast's share in Hulu to give it full ownership, the company began to similarly introduce a Hulu content hub to Disney+ in the United States for users subscribed to both services. In August 2025, Disney announced plans to replace Star with Hulu as its global general entertainment brand, which took effect on 8 October 2025, with Japan being the only country to retain the Star branding due to Disney not owning the Hulu brand in Japan.
History
Background
The "Star" brand originated as a Hong Kong-based satellite broadcaster, which operated under that name as an acronym of "Satellite Television Asian Region", it was founded by Hutchison Whampoa in 1990, and had been acquired by News Corporation in 1993.[2] After 2009, the Star brand was mainly restricted to the now-separately owned Star China Media, as well as Star India, which operates primarily in India, but also distributes programming internationally via services targeting viewers of Indian descent.The remainder of the Star Asia Pacific business was later brought under the Fox International Channels division.[3]
Star India (as well as all of the now Fox Networks Group's Asia Pacific operations) was then acquired by Walt Disney as part of its acquisition of 21st Century Fox on 20 March 2019.
During an earnings call on 5 August 2020, Disney CEO Bob Chapek announced that Disney planned to launch a new international, general entertainment service under the "Star" brand name in 2021.The plan superseded a previously announced international expansion of the majority-controlled American streaming service, Hulu, which has only expanded outside the United States to Japan.Chapek argued that, outside of the United States, the Hulu brand is not well known while Star is much more recognizable.[6]
Launch
Disney officially announced Star and Star+ on 10 December 2020, at its Investor Day Event.[7] During the event, it was announced that Star would launch as a sixth brand tile within the Disney+ interface. Additional parental controls would be launched alongside Star's introduction. Although Star would be available at no extra cost to Disney+ subscribers, the introduction of Star would coincide with a price increase.[8] Star was launched in Canada, United Kingdom, Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore on 23 February 2021, while the service was launched in Hong Kong and Taiwan later in 2021.[9] Disney promoted the launch by naming several stars in the International Star Registry.[10]
Star+ was launched in Latin America on 31 August 2021. Star was also to launch in Central and Eastern Europe, Israel, South Africa and the MENA region in 2022.Star was launched in Japan and South Korea on 27 October 2021 and 12 November 2021, respectively.[11]
Planned phase-out and shift towards Hulu
On 6 August 2025, after the completion of its acquisition of Comcast's stake in the service, Disney announced plans to fully migrate Hulu to the Disney+ platform in the United States. While Disney+ and Hulu will remain separate subscription products, their separate apps were to be replaced by a new "unified" platform in 2026. Concurrently, Disney also announced that it would replace Star with Hulu as its "global general entertainment brand".[18][19] The launch officially occurred on 8 October.[20][21]
In Europe, Disney+ and Star offer local content from third-party distributors in addition to local in-house and co-productions. The reason for this is a regulation that requires a certain percentage of European productions. In order to comply with this requirement, Disney has entered into a partnership with various local distributors from France and Germany, among others.[23][24][25][26] In Japan, besides Disney-owned contents, Star also provides anime series produced in the country.[27]
Multi-year deal with Sony Pictures
In April 2021, Disney and Sony Pictures reached a multi-year deal to let Sony's titles stream on Hulu and Disney+ or premiered on Disney linear television, it also merged separated existing deal between Funimation (now Crunchyroll) and Hulu.While title begins to add on Hulu and Disney+ until September 2022,[28] Marvel related titles starting with Spider-Man films added to Disney+'s Marvel hub in June 2022.[29] This also included the animated Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.[30] All three Sam Raimi-directed Spider-Man films and The Amazing Spider-Man would eventually be made available on the American version of the platform on 21 April 2023, with Spider-Man: Homecoming and Venom
Multi-year deal with Sony Pictures
In April 2021, Disney and Sony Pictures reached a multi-year deal to let Sony's titles stream on Hulu and Disney+ or premiered on Disney linear television, it also merged separated existing deal between Funimation (now Crunchyroll) and Hulu.While title begins to add on Hulu and Disney+ until September 2022,[28] Marvel related titles starting with Spider-Man films added to Disney+'s Marvel hub in June 2022.[29] This also included the animated Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.[30] All three Sam Raimi-directed Spider-Man films and The Amazing Spider-Man would eventually be made available on the American version of the platform on 21 April 2023, with Spider-Man: Homecoming and Venom, a film in Sony's Spider-Man Universe
Exclusive content
Many productions for which the local first release is carried out by Star are advertised and offered as Star Originals or Star Exclusives. Most of these productions come from the streaming services (such as Hulu) and TV channels (such as ABC, Freeform, FX, ESPN, or National Geographic) of the Walt Disney Company.Selected productions from its sister services Star+ and Disney+ Hotstar may come to Star,[33][34][35]Disney+ original series and movies
Availability
Star has been exclusively available as part of Disney+ in Japan since 8 October 2025. It was previously available in numerous other countries outside of the United States before the Star brand was replaced with the Hulu brand.
It was indeed launched in May 2022 in South Africa and in June 2022 in various MENA and European countries.
Subsequently, the European feeds of Star Plus, Star Bharat and Star Gold were rebranded as Utsav Plus, Utsav Bharat and Utsav Gold, respectively, on 22 January 2021, to avoid confusion with the streaming hub.[12] Disney plans to produce more Korean, Japanese and other Asian content under Star and Disney+ in the next few years.[13]
In May 2023, Disney rolled out the Star hub for Disney+ Hotstar subscribers in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.[14] In December 2023, in a similar manner to Star, Disney began to test a Hulu hub on Disney+ for subscribers in the United States that are subscribed to both services.[15]
In March 2024, it was announced that the Star hub would be added on Disney+ in Latin America on 26 June 2024,[16] while its separate platform, Star+, would be discontinued on 24 July of the same year.[17]
Initially, non-Marvel related titles and Crunchyroll-licensed titles were only available on Hulu in the United States, and multiple titles started to be available on Disney+ in March 2024 through the Hulu on Disney+ hub.
Initially, non-Marvel related titles and Crunchyroll-licensed titles were only available on Hulu in the United States, and multiple titles started to be available on Disney+ in March 2024 through the Hulu on Disney+ hub.
