Hotstar Premium Users to Get Access to Disney+ Content in India
Disney will make use of Hotstar to offer its content to users in India without charging anything extra.
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Disney+, the latest streaming service will be available from November onwards this year. But fans in India were eager to hear more about it launching in the country and here’s some good news on that front this week.
According to a report on AndroidCentral, the Disney+ platform and all of its content will be accessible to users in India via Hotstar from next year onwards.
Which means, all Hotstar Premium subscribers (paying Rs 999 for one year) will be able to stream Marvel and Star Wars content without needing to pay extra for the new service. This bundled offering was expected by many and this report now confirms what most people have been hoping for.
Compared to this, viewers in the US will have to shell out $7 (Rs 490 approx) every month to stream Disney+ on their screens.
This clearly tells you that Disney, which owns Star India (parent company of Hotstar), is excited about the growing potential of the Indian user base, aided by world’s cheapest 4G data rates from the telcos. Hotstar, with its paid and freemium offerings, has been the leader of the video streaming space in India with over 80 million users reported to have signed in.
Using Hotstar’s popularity, Disney+ could take advantage of its existing viewers and also add new set of audience at the same time.
Pricing has been crucial for success of streaming platforms in India. Just ask Amazon and Spotify, which have created new plans and lower pricing options for the country in particular. That’s something that Netflix is likely to follow in the coming months as well.
Interestingly, Hotstar has hiked the prices of its monthly plan from Rs 199 to Rs 299, without making changes to its annual plan. As for the users, they’ll be able to stream shows like Game of Thrones, IPL 2019 and even the cricket World Cup 2019 in England on their mobiles, tablets or even televisions.
Add titles like the Avengers, Captain America from Marvel and Coco from Pixar among others, and you’ve got a sweet deal packed in for less than Rs 1,000 every year.
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