Hotstar quietly rolls out Disney+ in India -- with dozens of originals including Star Wars and High School Musical

• Disney+ is streaming in India via Hotstar, which revamped its website and app.
  
• These offerings are a part of Hotstar’s premium subscription.
• Currently, Hotstar offers an yearly plan at ₹999 and a monthly plan at ₹299. It also offers a VIP plan at ₹365 per year.

The on-demand video streaming space in India is all set for another competitive year. Disney+ is now live in India on Hotstar, which is already the country’s India’s top OTT player. Hotstar quietly rolled out the services 18 days before the official launch of Disney+ on March 29.

The services are a part of Hotstar premium subscription plan, and its subscribers do not have to pay extra. Currently, Hotstar offers an yearly plan at ₹999 and a monthly plan at ₹299. It also offers a VIP plan at ₹365 per year.


Disney+ will add another library of originals for Hotstar which is ramping up on providing more content in India. These originals include the Star Wars series, Fairy Tale Weddings, Encore, High School Musical, The Mandalorian, and The World According to Jeff Goldblum.

According to TechCrunch, the company will reveal more details on March 13. The launch comes at a time when Hotstar was mocked by American comedian John Oliver for self-censoring an entire episode of “Last Week Tonight”. The episode wasn’t uploaded by Hotstar as it criticised Modi government over the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act and National Register of Citizens (NRC),

The addition of Disney content could give an extra fillip to Hotstar which already has exclusive rights to live steam the Indian Premier League which is all set to begin end of March

Hotstar bagged the deal to launch Disney’s online services after the latter acquired 21st Century Fox — including Star Group and its streaming partner Hotstar — for $71.3 billion in March 2019.

In 2019, Hotstar received over 400 million downloads with 555 installs per minute, the same year when Disney acquired it. It also diversified its content ranging from news to live cricket matches to streaming popular HBO series Game of Thrones.

After the acquisition, Hotstar substituted its green and yellow logo with the Disney’s indigo. India is the first country where Disney+ has launched via another service.

Business Insider India has reached out to Hotstar on the development, and is awaiting official comments.


See also:

Netflix is losing to homegrown OTT players in India — as the country remains addicted to soaps and movies

Zee5 plans to release 80 original shows this year across Indian languages