$140 Billion Worth Disney Enters Indian OTT Market Via Hotstar; Should Netflix, Amazon Worry?

$140 billion worth Disney, hailed as World’s 3rd biggest entertainment company, has now entered the OTT market in India, via Hotstar.

This way, Disney is now directly challenging the likes of Amazon Prime, Netflix, Voot and other OTT players, who are aiming to capture the Indian market.

Can Disney+ change the market dynamics?

Disney+ Is Now Live In India

Medianama first reported about the power-move by Disney to launch its OTT service in India. Disney had acquired 21st Century Fox last year, thereby acquiring Hotstar as well.

Now, via Hotstar’s vast reach in India, Disney has now launched their OTT service: Disney+ in India.

Initially, it was speculated that Disney+ will launch on March 29th, but it seems that they changed their mind, and decided to launch early.

This way, Indian users of Hotstar will be able to watch shows like The Mandalorian, Timon & Pumbaa, Marvel Cinematic Universe movies and a series of older Disney titles, which was previously not available for Indians.

Note here, that not every Marvel movie will be available on Hotstar, as some of the exclusive titles are reserved with Netflix as well.

Medianama also observed that most of the English movies and shows currently available on Hotstar (and Disney+), have both English and Hindi dubbed versions.

Disney+ Will Be Available Via Hotstar Premium

There has been no separate pricing announced for Disney+ in India, and will be available only via Hotstar Premium service, which is charged at Rs 999 per year.

It seems that Hotstar has decided not to hurt Govt sentiments, as they recently self-censored an episode of John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight, as it severely criticized PM Modi over the recent CAA and NRC protests.

As per Medianama, this can be witnessed as a build-up to Disney+ launch on their platform, and the self-censorship model can be very well explained as well.

Now, with an avalanche of high-quality content, can Disney race ahead Netflix and Amazon Prime in India?

We will keep you updated, as more details come in.

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