Walt Disney Consolidates Streaming Services

Disney, has 174 million paid subscribers across its four streaming services

JAKARTA - Walt Disney Co stated on Tuesday, August 31 that content from streaming service Hotstar, will migrate to streaming platforms ESPN+ and Hulu in the United States.

Disney, which has 174 million paid subscribers across its four streaming services, is slowly consolidating its content into the Disney Bundle, which includes ESPN+, Hulu, Disney+ and more than 100,000 movies, TV episodes, and sporting events.

Sports content from Hotstar will be moved to ESPN+, and Hotstar movies and TV shows will be moved to Hulu, which is home to series like "The Handmaid's Tale".

Hotstar's annual subscription costs $49.99 per year, while the Disney Bundle, which starts at $13.99 per month, will cost subscribers at least $167.88 for a year.

Hotstar users in the US will receive a redemption code to take advantage of the offer to switch their subscription to the entire Disney bundle, free of charge. Hotstar itself is popular in India for streaming Bollywood movies, local TV shows and cricket tournaments.

In the first half of 2021, Hotstar's mobile app had only about a 0.04% share of the install market among the top 100 streaming services in the US, according to data analytics firm Sensor Tower. However, in India which is crazy about cricket and Bollywood movies, it has a market share of 29% of all new downloads among the top 100 mobile video streaming apps on demand.

The Indian Premier League (cricket), which has an estimated brand value of US$6.8 billion, is the richest Twenty20 league and attracts many of the best players from all over the world.

The league's fourteenth season was suspended on May 4 with 31 games left to play after several players and backroom staff tested positive for COVID-19 amid a devastating second wave of infections in India. The remaining matches will be broadcast on ESPN+ in the US when the tournament resumes from September 19.