To remember the time when digital streaming was limited to Youtube, Prime, and Netflix the Indian streaming platform Hotstar broke all the records. Today, Hotstar has become one of the most popular and successful streaming platforms in the country.
With Disney+ joining the platform, gained access to various exclusive rights of internationally successful content of Disney like the Marvel series, Disney Movies, Pixar movies, etc. By streaming the Indian Premier League and the World Cup from time to time, It has successfully been able to tag traffic on its platform from time to time even before it partnered with Disney.
History
Star India had officially launched Hotstar on February 11, 2015, after a 15-month development period. They strategically launched it in line with the 2015 ODI Cricket World Cup and the upcoming T-20 series of the Indian Premier League. Since Star had streaming rights, it made it easier to gain effective traffic within a few months of its launch.
The service was initially supported by only the ads and it hosted a library of over 35,000 hours of content in seven different regional languages. It also included Livestream coverage of sports loved and highly watched in India such as cricket, football, and kabaddi. They left a trail of its success by reaching the mark of 1 million downloads within just one week after its launch.
They knew how to appeal to the millennial group of people and it did its best by promoting itself on iconic TV shows. It was only natural that Hotstar had grown a lot owing to this strategy. Currently, all the internationally imported content has been primarily received from the partnership with the Walt Disney Studios and Walt Disney Television. This partnership restructured Hotstar completely and it was renamed Disney+ Hotstar.
Content
Disney + Hotstar has the streaming rights of all Star India’s television channels, including entertainment channels and Star Sports. The internationally imported content is primarily from the partnership with the Walt Disney Studios and Walt Disney Television. This partnership restructured Hotstar completely and it was renamed Disney+ Hotstar. This added a new array of original Disney+ programs and Disney (including Pixar), Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm (including Star Wars franchise), and National Geographic original content on its streaming platform. Hotstar has the Core Disney+ Library. They also have license agreements with other third-party content providers like the streaming rights to HBO’s First run and other library programs.
Biggest Achievement Till Date:
- Netflix needed 9 years to reach the mark of 75 million downloads. It took only 1 year and a half to reach 72 million downloads
- Generated at least a whopping 345 million views during the 2015 Cricket World Cup and approximately 200 million+ views during the 2015 IPL T20. This gave a large hand to its initial success.
- As of March 2020, Disney+ Hotstar had 300 million active users
- Disney+ Hotstar currently offers over 100,000 hours of TV content and movies across 9 languages, and every major sport covered live.
- Internationally, Hotstar is also providing its services to Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. The operations are carried out similarly by combining local entertainment licensed from third-party studios with the larger content-based platform of Disney+.
Features of the app
When the app was launched in 2015, digitization had not radically changed in India. So low net consuming video content browsing was extremely essential which was made essential by the developers of the app. So they developed the app in such a way that the users could watch the videos at a low speed of even 50kbps. The other important features of the app are:
- Disney+ content segment: For the Disney Fans, the app hosts another section on the app that hosts exclusive Disney content like Marvel, Disney animated movies, etc. they have Recommended for you section based on your history of watching content.
- Parental control: The app also has a kid’s safe section where the content is rich in kids’ specials and age-appropriate content.
- Hotstar Orignals: Hotstar creates various original content much similar to Netflix Orignals. This content varies from a range of crime series, comedy series, and even documentaries and docu-series.
Subscription Plans
Plan | Price | Benefits |
Disney+ Hotstar Premium | Rs 1499/year | 1. All content |
Disney+ Hotstar Super | Rs 899/year | 1. All content |
Disney+ Hotstar Mobile | Rs 499/year | 1. All content |
Disney+ Hotstar Mobile | Rs 199/6 months | 1. All content |
Disney+ Hotstar Mobile | Rs 49/month | 1. All content |
Disney+ Hotstar (No Subscription) | Free | 1. Selective Movies with Advertisements |
