Recently Walt Disney launched its Disney+ streaming service in the U.S, Canada, and the Netherlands. In less than 48 hours from its official launch, Disney Plus has managed to hit 10 million subscriber market. It will be hitting Australia and New Zealand next week. As for India, the service is likely to arrive in the second half of 2020 as a part of Hotstar. Those who don’t know, Hotstar is a subsidiary of Star India which was acquired by Walt Disney as part of the $71 billion deal with 21st Century Fox.
Recently, Hotstar too posted a line on Diseny+ in a Twitter response.
Hi! We are working on bringing Disney+ to India. The launch date is yet to be announced; stay tuned. Thank you!
— Hotstar (@hotstar_helps) November 13, 2019
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Hotstar – a Disney Co.
Hotstar’s parent company is Star Network, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney company. Thus when the OTT juggernaut rolls down to India, it might not have to start from scratch. Instead, it is very likely to pool its vast library of content with Hotstar Premium (or VIP).
If this happens, Hotstar’s highest streaming resolution might upscale from 1080p to 4K HDR going on par with the likes of Netflix, Apple TV+ and Amazon Prime.
TechCrunch reports that Disney is planning a price hike of Hotstar towards the end of the first quarter of 2020 (before IPL 2020). Hotstar’s annual subscription might rise from Rs. 999 ($9.99) to Rs. 2159 ($30).
Now that’s huge. Still, its lower than what the basic plan of Netflix would cost a year.
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But again it’s all hearsay and nothing’s official at the moment. Nonetheless, we would like to know your thoughts on the new OTT platforms such as Disney+ and Apple TV+.
