Back in November 2019, we had heard from Hotstar that it’s working on bringing Disney+ to India. Well, the latest news is that it will reportedly arrive a little early than the forecasted Post IPL 2020 deadline.
Disney+ content will be clubbed as a part of Hotstar and subsequently, it will be christened Disney+Hotstar.
As you may already know, Hotstar is a second-tier subsidiary of Walt Disney. So, this infusion of Disney+ content into Hotstar seems a sound call. Speaking which, in a recent earnings call with analysts, Disney boss Bob Iger revealed the imminent launch ahead of the IPL 2020.
Disney hasn’t put much light on the pricing and content catalog. But, it mentioned that it will be bringing “two primary products” to India.
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Iger said, “We will be rebranding our existing Hotstar VIP and Premium subscription tiers to Disney Plus Hotstar. We see this as a great opportunity to use the proven platform of Hotstar to launch the new Disney+ service in one of the most populous countries and fastest-growing economies in the world.”
“One will be more premium in nature that will include the entire library of original programming and the other one will be more basic that will have the library and not the original programming priced for the market and launched at a very peak period of time for the IPL, the Cricket League.”
“So we think it’s an opportune moment, we take advantage of the presence of Star in the market and the millions of subscribers that they also have, we take advantage of the sports tie-in and we use the interface and the technology that includes the billing that already exists to launch a service we believe under very, very optimal circumstances.”
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Disney+ has surpassed estimates with a 28.6 million Disney+ subscriber base in the initial three months itself. This might witness a further increase with the arrival of long-anticipated shows from the Marvel roster. Superhero sequels such as The Falcon and the Winter Soldier as well as WandaVision are set to come in August and December respectively. Then there is the second season of The Mandalorian, which is set to hit the screens in October.
