HBO content, including popular shows like House of the Dragon, Game of Thrones – and current fan favorite, The Last of Us – is reportedly set to leave Disney+ Hotstar in India. According to a report, the streaming service, which is the biggest and most popular in India, is expected to conclude a deal with HBO to stream the television network’s extensive catalog of content. Disney+ Hotstar also streams content from Disney in India, including movies and shows from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Star Wars Universe.
a deadline reports HBO content is set to leave Disney+ Hotstar soon, and it looks like that’s in-line, citing local industry sources. restructuring plans Disney’s recently reinstated CEO Bob Iger was announced.
The deal to stream HBO content in India, sealed with Hotstar in 2015 after the platform’s launch, is said to have contributed significantly to the platform’s growth during the initial years. HBO Catalog, which included on-time streaming of episodes of popular shows at the time game of ThronesSubscribers were a huge draw, and helped the platform sell premium subscriptions.
However, Deadline reports that English-language content is still seen as a niche in India. So Disney+ Hotstar could be producing or licensing more local content, or focusing on its sports portfolio. This will naturally impact the customer base of the platform, which has already taken a hit following the loss of streaming rights for the Indian Premier League.
For many years, the popular Indian Premier League cricket tournament was streamed on Hotstar, but that has already changed with Viacom18. rags Streaming rights of the tournament from 2023. Disney+ Hotstar continues to stream a host of other sports content including the English Premier League and the Indian Super League. Hotstar was rebranded to Disney+ Hotstar in 2020 following the acquisition of Fox (Hotstar and Star’s parent company), and Disney+ content such as Marvel Cinematic Universe and Star Wars universe movies and shows have been available to stream on Disney+ Hotstar since then. are available for
Citing industry analysts, the report suggests that HBO content may move to a different platform in India, with Amazon Prime Video seen as the frontrunner to acquire the streaming rights. This could be in the form of shows being added to the standard subscription catalog as part of Prime Video, or HBO Max being made part of the Prime Video channel, where an additional subscription fee is charged to access the content. Will go , Prime Video already has a deal with Warner Bros. Discovery to stream some HBO Max original shows in India, including the flight attendant And raised by wolves,