Disney Hotstar is an Indian online streaming service owned by Disney through its subsidiary, Disney Star. Originally launched in 2015 by Star India, Disney Hotstar quickly rose to become one of the most popular platforms for watching live TV, blockbuster movies, and major sports events. Once again, Disney Hotstar has captured viewers’ attention by streaming major cricket tournaments like the Indian Premier League (IPL), along with other sports such as football and hockey.
Hotstar, in 2020, got itself rebranded as Disney+ Hotstar in the Indian subcontinent: This followed the acquisition of the company by Disney from 21st Century Fox (the owner of Star India). It will henceforth carry all Disney+ content, including those from Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar, and National Geographic.
Earlier, Hotstar was launched in countries like the US, the UK, and Canada. Afterward, it was decided by Disney that these places would shift to a single Disney+ domain. Other North American countries like India still have Disney plus Hotstar as the main operating streaming platform for native language content, Bollywood films, and Disney+ exclusive originals.
An Indian subscription-based video-on-demand online streaming platform is JioHotstar by Disney Star. Formerly Disney+ Hotstar, it eventually merged with JioCinema on February 14, 2025, thus the name JioHotstar.
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The streaming service, launched under the name Hotstar, initially featured content primarily from Disney Star’s (formerly Star India) local networks, including films, TV series, live sports, and original programs. Over time, it also began licensing titles from third-party providers like Showtime. As mobile broadband rapidly expanded across India, Disney Hotstar quickly emerged as the country’s leading streaming platform. Today, Disney Hotstar is not only known for its vast local content but also for delivering premium global entertainment to millions of users.
Under the stewardship of Disney’s 21st Century Fox Sporting acquisition, Hotstar became part of Disney’s global streaming brand in 2019 in that year. It was finally renamed in April 2020 to reflect its combination of existing domestic and third-party offerings with a variety of Disney+ originals, steamed from Walt Disney Studios, Pixar, Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, and National Geographic, into Disney+ Hotstar.
Disney+ Hotstar is fully owned by Disney outside India in countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. There, the service provides a mix of local and third-party entertainment content along with the larger Disney+ library. In Singapore, Canada, and the UK, on the other hand, Hotstar mainly caters to the Indian diaspora, which includes content about Disney Star’s domestic entertainment programming and sports, whereas Disney+ is available as a separate platform altogether in these locations. Hotstar was also available in the US but was shut down in 2021 with content being absorbed by Hulu and ESPN+.
History of Hotstar
After 15 months of painstaking effort, Star India officially introduced Hotstar on February 11, 2015, to coincide with the forthcoming 2015 Cricket World Cup and the Indian Premier League (IPL) in which Star acquired streaming rights. An ad-supported platform, Hotstar infused its library with a staggering 35,000 hours of content in seven regional languages. Other features include live streaming of sports such as football and kabaddi; for cricket matches, live-streaming was unfortunately deleted.
Star CEO Sanjay Gupta pointed out how “very few platforms are available to Indian consumers” other than YouTube to provide high-quality, curated content. According to him, the focus of this service will be to attract the growing young adult audience with “very targeted” advertising. Gupta also predicted that by 2020, up to 25% of Star’s annual revenue would be contributed by this platform.
Disney Hotstar gained massive traction early on, attracting around 345 million views during the Cricket World Cup 2015 and approximately 200 million views during the Indian Premier League Season that same year. By April 2017, Disney Hotstar expanded its reach further by launching subscription tiers tailored for international audiences. These tiers included access to premium sports content and new arrangements for streaming uncut HBO shows, beginning with the highly anticipated Season 6 premiere of Game of Thrones. This move solidified Disney Hotstar as a leading hub for both global and local entertainment.
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The National India saw its mobile broadband grow quicker by the opening of Jio, an LTE-only wireless carrier, in 2016, which catalyzed the rapid growth of streaming video across the country. Popular platforms like those of Amazon and Netflix will see growth due to this new case in India, yet Hotstar keeps the pole with the best streaming service of all. As of July 2017, the Hotstar app has clocked more than 300 million downloads, making it the most popular app in India for video streaming.
In May 2018, reports suggested that Hotstar had 75 to 100 million active users per month. In September 2018, Hotstar CEO Ajit Mohan stepped down to take charge as Vice President and Managing Director at Facebook India.
The initiative soon-after proceeded to change its governance system by appointing two separate leadership executives for the ad-supported and premium services on the very same month.With the introduction of new funds from Star US Holdings, Hotstar would amp up its production of premium original content to better compete with Amazon and Netflix while raising concerns over increasing financial losses.
By 2019, Disney Hotstar had reached an impressive milestone of 150 million monthly active users, setting it firmly on the path to dominance in the streaming world. In March of the same year, just ahead of the 2019 Indian Premier League (IPL) season, all Annual Sports plan subscribers were transitioned to a new entry-level tier called Disney Hotstar VIP. This strategic move allowed Disney Hotstar to cater to a broader audience, offering affordable access to live sports and exclusive local content.
Served as an introductory package, it offered access to sports content (including IPL, 2019 Cricket World Cup, and Premier League football), access to TV serials before their telecast, and original series called Hotstar Specials.It also allowed users to pay via cash. Chief Product Officer Varun Narang described it as “a value proposition built with the Indian audience at the heart of it.
Hotstar set many records for concurrent viewership through the 2019 Indian Premier League (IPL), with the final of 2019 setting a new landmark globally with a record peak of 18.6 million viewership. TechCrunch stated that rapid internet growth in India led to this surge. The record was then surpassed during the 2019 Cricket World Cup semi-final between India and New Zealand, which saw 25.3 million concurrent viewers. In a match earlier in the tournament, Hotstar also crossed almost 100 million daily users.
Acquisition by Disney and Disney+ Integration (2019–2023)
In 2019, the global entertainment conglomerate Disney took a shot at acquiring Star and its American counterpart Hotstar from their parent company, 21st Century Fox.
On an earnings call in February 2020, Bob Iger announced that Disney+ and its original programming will be integrated into Hotstar and will be relaunched on March 29, 2020. It was intended to coincide with the start of the 2020 Indian Premier League (IPL), which was intended to use the existing infrastructure and numbers of Hotstar users. As per The Motley Fool, Hotstar was termed as Disney’s “secret weapon” because of its domination in India in the market.
In the March of 2020, Hotstar softly launched an expanded service for a select group of users. This official launch was deferred until 3 April 2020, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic and IPL season postponement.
Disney Hotstar marked its grand launch with a virtual red carpet premiere featuring blockbuster titles like The Lion King and the highly acclaimed Disney+ series The Mandalorian. The event was made even more special with live interactions from popular celebrities such as Rana Daggubati, Katrina Kaif, Shraddha Kapoor, Hrithik Roshan, and Tiger Shroff. Alongside the launch festivities, Disney Hotstar also updated its pricing, with the Disney Hotstar Premium subscription seeing an increase to reflect its expanded content offerings.
Star announced offering free service for migrant workers in Singapore until 21 July 2020 to boost morale against the challenges of the pandemic.
In June 2020, Hotstar appointed Sunil Rayan, an erstwhile Googler, the new president.
By August 2020, Disney had dubbed the development plans of the Disney+ Hotstar service to more markets, beginning with Indonesia.The company also introduced the Star brand—originally from Star Asia—for general entertainment streaming in markets outside the United States.
Unlike Disney+ Hotstar, which is built on Hotstar’s platform, the Star brand serves as an international counterpart to the U.S.-based Hulu, functioning as a content hub within existing Disney+ services. In Latin America, Star+ was launched as a standalone service, featuring both entertainment content and ESPN sports programming.
Merger of Disney+ Hotstar and JioCinema
In November 2024, Reliance Industries and Disney finalized an $8.5 billion merger of their media assets. By December 2024, Reliance acquired the domain jiohotstar.com, fueling speculation about the official merger of Disney+ Hotstar and JioCinema into a unified platform.
On February 14, 2025, the Disney+ Hotstar app was updated across all platforms in India, branded JioHotstar. Meanwhile, Viacom18-owned JioCinema began diverting users and moving subscriptions to the new platform.
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Conclusion
Over the years, Hotstar has grown from a local streaming service to a leading entertainment global power. From originally broadcasting live sports and local content, it transformed into a forefront of Disney+ originals and International entertainment through its hub. It has adapted itself according to the changing demands of its audiences.
The recent merger of JioCinema will officially form JioHotstar, thereby opening a new chapter through which the powers of these industry giants will be harnessed to provide a much larger and diversified content library. There are further developments due to which JioHotstar will bring with it the prospect of changing the streaming experience in India and setting new standards in digital entertainment.
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