Disney will move content from Hotstar to Hulu, ESPN + in the US

August 31 (Reuters) – Walt Disney Co. (DIS.N) said on Tuesday that the content of its streaming service Hotstar, home of India’s IPL cricket tournament and original shows like “Aarya”, will migrate to its ESPN + and Hulu broadcast platforms in the United States.

Disney, which has 174 million customers paying for its four streaming services, is looking to slowly consolidate its content into a Disney package, which includes ESPN +, Hulu, Disney + and more than 100,000 movies, TV episodes and sporting events.

Hotstar sports content will be moved to ESPN +, and Hotstar movies and TV shows will migrate to Hulu, where series such as “The Handmaid’s Tale” are located.

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

Hotstar users in the United States will receive a coupon code to get an offer to change their subscriptions to the entire Disney package at no cost.

IPL COMES TO ESPN +

Hotstar is popular in India as it broadcasts Bollywood movies, local TV shows and cricket tournaments.

During the first half of 2021, the Hotstar mobile app had only a 0.04% market share of installations among the top 100 transmission services in the U.S., according to data analytics firm Sensor Tower. However, in India Crazy Cricket had a market share of 29% of all new downloads among the top 100 a la carte video video apps.

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

The fourteenth season of the league 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 the India.

The rest of the matches will be broadcast on ESPN + in the United States when the tournament resumes on September 19.

Reports of Chavi Mehta, Subrat Patnaik and Juby Babu in Bengaluru; Edited by Amy Caren Daniel

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