Hulu on Disney+ launched Wednesday. What you need to know

Just because Hulu content will be available on Disney+ doesn't mean the Hulu app is going away.

Both Hulu and Disney+ will still be available as stand-alone services, though Disney+ only subscribers will see more in-app options to upgrade to the combined service. Upgrading to the bundle of Hulu on Disney+ will start at $2 more per month, Disney said.

Beta tests of the integrated app showed higher engagement

Though the beta test was more limited than the full combo seen Wednesday, Disney executives were pleased with what they saw.

Engagement with the one-app beta phase "exceeded our expectations across every single metric, with significant growth week over week," said Joe Earley, president of Disney Entertainment's direct-to-consumer division.

Those metrics included hours per subscriber, or the amount of time viewers spent watching; the percentage of subscribers who were watching; and the number of titles watched, he said.

"In every way that we were measuring and watching, the behavior exceeded it," he said.

That's important because increasing engagement and reducing churn helps to boost advertising dollars.

"It's whole goal is to make happier subscribers ... provide them convenience, deeper engagement, better retention, increase the value of the Disney bundle for our subscribers," Earley said.

The one-app experience still won't include Hulu + Live TV

Hulu + Live TV will remain a stand-alone service "for the foreseeable future," Earley said, describing the service as "very, very healthy" and "an important part" of the direct-to-consumer system.

Disney will get a taste of what this kind of live content integration could look like in June, when Latin American streaming service Star+ will be consolidated into Disney+, a move that will bring the ESPN networks in Latin America into Disney+.