Disney + shows, films to be broadcast by Hotstar in India

New Delhi: Last Thursday, Walt Disney Co. announced the launch in November 2019 of its highly anticipated commercial-free video streaming service, Disney +, in the United States. However, it is unlikely that the company will launch the platform in India and will forward original content created for the new OTT service (over-the-top) and its film library to the Indian public via Hotstar, the video streaming service

Walt Disney acquired Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox Inc. under a $ 71 billion stock purchase and sale agreement. June 2018. What makes Star India, Fox Star Studios and Hotstar in India part of Walt Disney.

The content of other Disney units, including ESPN and Hulu, is already available on Hotstar, and Disney + will be a valuable addition. Of course, Hotstar plans to locate Disney + movies and shows by doubling or adding subtitles in Indian languages, including Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. Hotstar's original Hotstar Specials content is currently available in seven Indian languages.

India will probably be the only market in the world, in which services such as Hulu, ESPN and now Disney + will exist under the same umbrella and not independently. . In addition, while Disney + will cost $ 7 overall, Star plans to continue its current subscriptions: Hotstar Premium ( ¤ 299 per month and ¤ 999 per year) and Hotstar VIP ( ¥ 365 a year) -in India, even after the launch of Disney +.

An e-mail request to a Star India spokesperson asking for details remained unanswered.

Certainly, the decision to bring the content of Disney + in Hotstar is based on the extended scope of the latter, besides the potential of the Indian market.

According to Disney's own estimates, revealed during the 2019 Investor Day held last week, Hotstar has logged 300 million active users per month (MAU). in March. It is also the number one entertainment app in the country in terms of MAU, downloads and revenue, according to the 2019 report of the FICCI-EY Media and Entertainment Industry

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"The thirst for content and the ability to pay free up the growth of payments to consumers on video. India has become an attraction pole for all media and content companies, "said at the Uday Shankar event, president of Star and Disney India, and president of The Walt Disney Co., Asia Pacific.

and no actor would want to participate in the growth, said Navin Khemka, general manager of the Mediacom South Asia news agency, belonging to Group M.

"Disney's content + would be focused on the urban elite with its mix. "Vijay Shenoy, Senior Vice President, Strategy and Business Development, Langoor Digital Agency,

" This could potentially make the Disney OTT family all the players the more important in India Jehil Thakkar, partner of Deloitte India, said: "But they will need a significant amount of local content to be able to really carve out a place in the market." Certainly, in the last 8 to 10 months, American actors, including Amazon Prime Video and Netflix, have had to focus on local content to appeal to Indian audiences.