What you need to know
- Disney is reportedly planning to launch Disney+ in India and few Southeast Asian markets by the second half of 2020.
- In India and other Southeast Asian countries, the entire Disney+ catalog will be available via Hotstar.
- Once the Disney+ catalog becomes available on Hotstar, Disney might hike the monthly subscription fee of the video streaming service from $14 a year to $30.
The highly anticipated Disney+ streaming service was finally launched earlier this week and managed to amass over 10 million users in just 24 hours. According to a report from TechCrunch, Disney is planning to bring the Disney+ catalog to Hotstar, a video streaming service that it owns, by the second half of 2020. Hotstar with Disney+ catalog will be available in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and a few other Southeast Asian countries.
Hotstar is currently the leader in the Indian video streaming market. Earlier this year, it set a new record for live viewership when 18.6 million users watched the final game of the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournament on its platform. It has around 60 million monthly active users currently, nearly twice as much as rivals Netflix and Prime Video. During the IPL season, it had over 300 million subscribers.
Citing sources familiar with Disney's plans, the report further claims that the company will be raising the monthly subscription fee of Hotstar in India after bringing the Disney+ catalog. Once the price hike comes into effect, the subscription fee could go up from $14 to nearly $30 a year. Even after the price hike, which is expected to happen sometime by the end of the first quarter next year, Hotstar will still be more affordable than Netflix in India.
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