Disney+ Hotstar Has Around 8 Million Paid Subscribers 3b6n2y Disney Claims

A lot more than Amazon and Netflix. 2k96r

By Akhil Arora | Updated: 9 April 2020 11:48 IST

Disney+ Hotstar Has Around 8 Million Paid Subscribers, Disney Claims

Photo Credit: Akhil Arora/Gadgets 360 3n5v4r

Highlights

Disney+ has over 50 million paid subscribers globally
Netflix has over 167 million paid subscribers globally
Most Indian players have a lot of indirect subscriptions

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Disney+ Hotstar has around 8 million paid subscribers, Disney revealed Wednesday, giving us the first official numbers for what is generally considered India's biggest streaming service with over 300 million monthly active s. (That's 16 percent of Disney+'s total, which has sured 50 million paid subscribers globally.) It's hard to make any comparisons, given only a few of its competition in India deals in official numbers.

When Prime Video benefits.

Amongst local competition, things get murkier, as many are inflated, since they also cover indirect subscriptions, purchased through partners such as telecom operators and the like. Eros Now claims to have over 26.2 million paid subscribers, but there's no word on direct subscriptions. As of last September, SonyLIV claimed to have 70–80 million monthly active s, with 20–25 percent paid subscribers, which would put it in the range of 14–20 million paid subscribers. Again, there's no word on how many of these are directly paid.

When it last reported, ALTBalaji had 5.1 million paid subscribers, though only 1.02 million were direct subscribers. Zee5, which had 76.4 million monthly active s as of last June, said in March that it doubled its paid subscriber base thanks to the lockdown. But it didn't provide any numbers.

And Disney+ Hotstar's closest competitor by monthly active s, Voot — it crossed launched its subscription offering, Voot Select, last month. So that's a moot comparison.

Of course, the various subscription-based streaming services are catering to different Indias. Netflix is at the upper end of the English-speaking demographic, with its global slate of originals. It costs Rs. 199 a month for mobile-only, but jumps to Rs. 650 for other devices. Amazon Prime (Rs. 999 a year) and Disney+ Hotstar straddle the international and local realms. The latter offers two tiers: Rs. 399 a year for VIP (local languages-only) or Rs. 1,499 a year for (English-language).

Both ALTBalaji is only focused on originals. Eros Now will soon enter the English-speaking department, thanks to its deal with NBCUniversal. Eros Now costs Rs. 399 a year, Zee5 is Rs. 999 a year, and ALTBalaji comes in at Rs. 300 a year.

Like Disney+ Hotstar, Voot Select kicked off its interest in international content, in addition to a bigger push with originals. Both SonyLIV and Voot Select cost Rs. 499 a year.

Can Netflix force Bollywood to reinvent itself? We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts or RSS. You can also the episode or just hit the play button below.

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