Hotstar website screenshot
Streaming video services which are also referred to as OTT (Over The Top) services have been recently very popular in India. This is largely due to the fact that millions of people have gotten access to cheaper internet. In 2016, a company called Reliance Jio started offering very cheap plans for LTE. The goal of Jio was to reach as many as people especially in the rural areas. The competitive prices not only brought new people on the internet but also forced all the other companies to lower their prices which were too high compared to Jio. Jio also released a very cheap smartphone which gave people an affordable way to enter that space. Xiaomi has had the majority share in the lower end for a few years now. Now, many companies are trying to compete in this space which gives consumers a lot of options to choose from.
In January 2016, Netflix was launched in India. Netflix was leading not just in the US but also globally as it was one of the first services to take streaming seriously. But they didn’t understand that India is a very price competitive market. So releasing a service which costs ₹500/$7.14 per month as a base plan turned out to be a bad idea. This led to a few people sharing the ₹650/$9.28 plan with a friend or ₹800/$11.4 plan with 3 friends. But Overall, it failed as a service. In July 2019, they released a ₹199/$2.84 per month plan which offered the entire catalogue for 1 smartphone only at 480p resolution. It is still too early to know whether this strategy will be successful or not, but time will tell.
Amazon Prime Video was launched in December 2016. This was part of the Amazon Prime service launching alongside. After seeing the success and popularity of Prime in the US and rising sales of Amazon in India since June 2013, Amazon decided to bring Prime to India. Prime has been very successful because it offers a bundle with numerous services ranging from video, ad-free music, free fast delivery, exclusive and early deals. All these services are offered at a competitive price of ₹129/$1.84 per month or ₹999/$14.27 per year which is a no brainier. This has made it the second most popular streaming service in India.
Many other cable networks created their own apps and have a little market share but not anything significant. They include SonyLIV, Voot, Zee5 and ALT Balaji. Some new services started as well like Jio Cinema, Airtel Xtreme (previously known as Airtel TV) but are also not widely used.
Hotstar was launched in 2014 by Star India. Star India has a huge network of cable channels which are very popular in India and has huge viewership. Hotstar had acquired streaming rights for 2015 Indian Premier League and was available to watch at launch. It was launched as an ad-supported service with all Star Channels and live sports. In 2016, they launched a subscription tier with international content and premium sports. This included a deal with HBO for uncut content for shows like Game of Thrones. Hotstar became the dominant service because of its ad-supported free tier for Daily Soaps and Star Channels as well as the cheap ₹999/$14.27 per year plan for international and premium sports content. In March 2019, Hotstar released a new tier called “Hotstar VIP” for sports content only, including IPL, World Cup, English Premier League at just ₹365/$5.21 per year.
In 2019, Hotstar was acquired by Walt Disney Company as part of its acquisition of parent company 21st Century Fox. In April 2019, it was reported by LiveMint that all the Disney+ content will be available Hotstar in India. In August 2019, on the earnings call, Bob Iger (CEO of Walt Disney) confirmed plans of expansion of Hotstar in Asia.
Currently Hotstar offers content from Star network, 20th Century Fox, Disney, HBO, CBS’s Showtime, National Geographic, Hooq.
(Hooq offers content from its co-owners Sony Pictures and Warner Bros.)
Twitter account of Hotstar has confirmed that all Disney+ content will be available on it’s service.
We are in the Endgame now.
On November 12 when Disney+ launches, Hotstar will get the same content. If not on the same day then within a few weeks. This means that Hotstar will be a one-stop shop for all content in India. And the best part is that it costs ₹999/$14.27 per year. This is by far the best deal offered anywhere and brings an end to Streaming Wars in India for now.
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