Hotstar, in order to stay competitive in India’s rapidly growing content streaming market (which now also has Amazon), has now announced a new studio partnership with Disney India to augment its Premium service. It has inked a multi-year SVOD deal with Disney India to showcase the studio’s biggest hits exclusively on Hotstar Premium.
The content streaming platform will now be able to provide movies like Lucasfilm Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Disney’s The Jungle Book and Moana, Marvel’s Captain America: Civil War and Doctor Strange, Disney.Pixar’s Finding Dory amongst others.
In addition, Hotstar premium subscribers will also have access to popular movies and classics from Disney’s library including Disney Pixar’s Ratatouille, Brave, Toy Story 3; Disney’s The Lion King, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.
Also, the subscribers will be able to watch popular American TV series from ABC Studios such as Castle and Desperate Housewives. They will be able to access this content conveniently through Disney, Marvel and ABC Studios branded sections on the homepage of Hotstar.
Ajit Mohan, CEO, Hotstar said,
The deal with Disney is in line with our strategy of bringing the best of new shows and movies from around the world to our Premium subscribers. This partnership signals our continuing strategy: we will invest deeply and widely with the best story tellers in the world to ensure that Premium continues as the standout streaming service in the country.
Amrita Pandey, Vice President, Studios, Disney India, said,
Our movies have met with much success in theatres this year. This deal is important for us as it enables us to offer our movies across Disney, Marvel, Star Wars and Pixar brands and our ABC Studios’ TV shows to our audience wherever they are. Hotstar Premium is an ideal home for our content and it gives subscribers across the country, the chance to revisit their loved stories.
Hotstar now has crossed more than 140 million downloads to date. According to third party tracking provider App Annie, that tracks app usage of video streaming platforms, more than 50 million users used the service in India in the month of December.
In this market, currently, one of the biggest competitor for Hotstar is Amazon’s Prime Video which is currently available for only Rs. 499 for 12 months, while Hotstar costs Rs. 199 per month. Other media streaming services in India include Netflix, Eros Now, Viu, Spuul, Voot, among others.
