 | A request that this article title be changed toHotstarHotstar isunder discussion. Pleasedo not move this article until the discussion is closed. |
 Logo used since 2024 | |
| Formerly | Hotstar (2015–Present)
Disney+ Hotstar (2020-2025) |
|---|---|
| Type of business | Streaming |
Type of site | OTT platform |
| Available in | |
| Country of origin | India |
| Area served | |
| Founder | Star India |
| Industry | Entertainment,mass media |
| Parent | |
| URL | https://www.hotstar.com |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Registration | Required |
| Users | 400 million (as of 17 October 2025[update])[1] |
| Launched | 11 February 2015; 10 years ago (2015-02-11) (as Hotstar) |
| Current status | Active |
Disney+ Hotstar, (known asJioHotstar inIndia orHotstar inCanada,UK, andSingapore), is an Indiansubscription video-on-demandover-the-topstreaming service owned byJioStar.The brand was introduced as Hotstar for a streaming service carrying content from Disney Star's (formerlyStar India) local networks, including films, television series, live sports, andoriginal programming, as well as featuring content licensed from third parties such asShowtime among others. Amid the significant growth ofmobile broadband in India, Hotstar quickly became the dominant streaming service in the country.
Following theacquisition of Star India's parent company21st Century Fox byDisney in 2019, Hotstar was integrated into Disney's global streaming brandDisney+ as "Disney+ Hotstar" in April 2020. The co-branded service addedDisney+ original programming, and films and television series from its main content brands ofWalt Disney Studios,Pixar,Marvel Studios,Lucasfilm, andNational Geographic alongside the domestic and third-party content already carried on the platform. The Indian version of Disney+ Hotstar in India was merged withJioCinema in February 2025 to form JioHotstar.
Outside India, in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand, Disney+ Hotstar is fully owned by Disney, where it similarly combines entertainment content licensed from local, third-party studios with the larger Disney+ library. Disney+ Hotstar in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand became Disney+ on 9 October 2025 as part of the rebranding ofStar into Hulu in the global market.[2] In Singapore, Canada, and the United Kingdom, Hotstar operates as a streaming service targeting theIndian diaspora, focusing on Disney Star's domestic entertainment and sports content, and Disney+ operates as a standalone service in these markets. Hotstar formerly operated in the United States as well, but it was closed in 2021 and its content was folded intoHulu andESPN+.
Star India officially launched Hotstar on 11 February 2015 after fifteen months of development, coinciding with the2015 Cricket World Cup and the2015 Indian Premier League (for which Star had acquired the streaming rights). The ad-supported service initially featured a library of over 35,000 hours of content in seven regional languages, as well as live streaming coverage of sports such asfootball andkabaddi, andcricket on adelay. Star CEO Sanjay Gupta felt that there "[weren't] many platforms available to Indian consumers offering high-quality, curated content besides, say,YouTube", and explained that the service would appeal most prominently to the growing young adult demographic, and feature "very targeted" advertising. He estimated that by 2020, the service could account for nearly a quarter of Star's annual revenue.[3][4]
Hotstar generated at least 345 million views throughout the2015 Cricket World Cup, and approximately over 200 million views during the 2015 Indian Premier League season.[5][6] In April 2016, Hotstar launched a subscription tier primarily oriented towards international content and the possibility of premium sports content. The service launched alongside a new deal to carryHBO content uncut on the platform, with its introduction coinciding with theseason 6premiere ofGame of Thrones.[7]
The 2016 launch of theLTE-only wireless carrierJio spurred the growth ofmobile broadband in India and was credited in turn for having bolstered the growth of streaming video in the country. While services of US origin such asAmazon Prime Video andNetflix saw some growth in the Indian market, Hotstar remained the dominant streaming service.[8] By July 2017, Hotstar's apps had reached 300 million downloads, and it was reported as being the top video streaming app in the country.[9][10]
In May 2018, it was reported that the service had 75–100 million active users per month.[11] In September 2018, Hotstar CEOAjit Mohan left to become the vice president and managing director of Facebook India.[12] That same month, it was reported that the service had begun to restructure its leadership to have separate executives for its ad-supported and premium services, and, aided by new funding from Star US Holdings, planned to increase its production of premium original content to better compete with Amazon and Netflix, amidst concerns that the service was beginning to haemorrhage cash.[13]
By 2019, the service had over 150 million active users monthly. In March 2019, ahead of the2019 Indian Premier League, Hotstar migrated existing subscribers of its All Annual Sports plan to a new entry-level plan known as Hotstar VIP. Intended as an introductory option, it includes access to sports content (including the IPL,2019 Cricket World Cup, andPremier League football), early access to serials before their television broadcast, and original series from the newHotstar Specials banner. It is also payable via cash. Chief product officer Varun Narang described the offering as "a value proposition built with the Indian audience at the heart of it".[14]
The 2019 Indian Premier League repeatedly broke records for concurrent viewership on Hotstar, with the2019 final setting a new "global record" peak of 18.6 million. US websiteTechCrunch credited these gains to the extensive growth of internet usage in the country.[15] This was surpassed during the semi-final of the 2019 Cricket World Cup between India and New Zealand, with 25.3 million. After the India-Pakistan match earlier in the tournament, Hotstar surpassed almost 100 million daily users.[16]
Star, and in turn Hotstar, were acquired bythe Walt Disney Company in 2019, as part of itsacquisition of their US parent company21st Century Fox.[17][18]
During a February 2020 earnings call, Iger announced that its recently launched international streaming brandDisney+ and its original programming would be integrated into Hotstar as part of a re-launch on 29 March 2020. Iger stated that the service's launch—originally scheduled to coincide with the opening of the2020 Indian Premier League—would take advantage of Hotstar's existing infrastructure and customer base.The Motley Fool described Hotstar as being Disney's "secret weapon" in the market, due to its already-dominant position.[19][17][18]
Hotstar began tosoft launch the expanded service for some users in March. On 20 March 2020, in recognition of theCOVID-19 pandemic and the associated postponement of the IPL season, the launch was pushed back to 3 April.[20][21] The service officially launched with a "virtual red carpet premiere" ofThe Lion King and Disney+ seriesThe Mandalorian, featuring actorsRana Daggubati,Katrina Kaif,Shraddha Kapoor,Hrithik Roshan, andTiger Shroff participating in live interactions.[22] The price of the Hotstar Premium service was also increased with the launch.[23]
On 2 May 2020, Star announced that it would distribute the service for free toLabour in India in Singapore through 21 July, to improve morale amidtheir impact from COVID-19.[24] In June 2020, Hotstar named Sunil Rayan, formerly ofGoogle, as its new president.[25]
In August 2020, Disney announced that it would begin extending the Disney+ Hotstar service to other territories, beginning with Indonesia.[26] The company also announced that it would similarly use the brandingStar (as originated from Star Asia) for general entertainment streaming services in markets outside of the United States. Unlike Disney+ Hotstar-branded services, however, the Star brand is used as an equivalent to Disney's U.S. streaming brandHulu (which has less recognition outside of the U.S.), and generally consists of a content hub added to existing Disney+ services (unlike Disney+ Hotstar, which is based on Hotstar's platform). In Latin America, Star was released as a second service,Star+, which also featuresESPN content.[27][28]
In February 2023, Disney reported that Disney+ had a net loss of 2.4 million subscribers worldwide in the first fiscal quarter of 2023, with its loss of streaming rights to the IPL in India toViacom18 being the main contributing factor.[29][30]
In February 2023, it was reported thatHBO's original programming would be moving from Hotstar, possibly related to an announcement by Disney CEOBob Iger regarding a restructuring and cutting $5.5 billion in costs atthe Walt Disney Company.[31] This was confirmed by the platform via a tweet the following month, announcing that HBO original programming would be removed from the platform from 31 March, including series such asGame of Thrones, its spinoffHouse of the Dragon,Succession and the ongoing seriesThe Last of Us. Although it was speculated by analysts that HBO content would be made available onAmazon Prime Video, whereHBO Max original programming, as well as films from theWarner Bros. Pictures library, are currently available,[32]Reliance Industries/Viacom18'sJioCinema signed a deal withWarner Bros. Discovery in April 2023 for the HBO,Warner Bros. Pictures andHBO Max content libraries to be made available on the platform.[33][34][35]
In response to JioCinema's decision to stream the entirety of the 2023 IPL for free, Disney+ Hotstar announced in June 2023 that it would stream the2023 Asia Cup and2023 Cricket World Cup for free on mobile devices.[36]
In November 2024, Disney completed a merger of its Indian television and streaming assets with Reliance Industries, forming ajoint venture known as JioStar. The new entity is held primarily by Viacom18 and Reliance holding a 63.16%, with Disney holding a 36.84% stake and Reliance serving as the operating partner.[37] In December 2024, it was reported that the company had acquired a domain name for "JioHotstar", indicating an impending merger of Disney+ Hotstar with its now-former rival JioCinema.[38]
On 14 February 2025, the Disney+ Hotstar and JioCinema services in India were merged to form JioHotstar; JioStar's CEO of digital Kiran Mani—former head ofGoogle Play in the Asia-Pacific—explained that the service aimed to "make premium entertainment truly accessible to all Indians". At launch, JioStar promoted that the merged platform featured over 300,000 hours worth of content, while plans were announced for at least 40 to 50 new original series and 1,100 hours of regional language programming per-year, and a newshort-form content initiative known as "Sparks" involving top Indian content creators. Sports properties such as the IPL would also return to the platform, as well as rights to HBO andParamount Global content among others inherited from JioCinema.[39][40][41]
Disney+ Hotstar's content library draws from Disney Star's television networks, including its entertainment networks andStar Sports.[42][43][44] Imported content is drawn primarily fromWalt Disney Studios andDisney General Entertainment Content, and includesDisney+ original programming and the core Disney+ libraries of Disney (includingPixar),Marvel Studios,Lucasfilm (including theStar Wars franchises), andNational Geographic.[22][23] It also holds licensing agreements with other third-party content providers,[42][43][44] such as streaming rights (for the Indian markets) to library programming fromNBCUniversal (includingPeacock original programming),Paramount Global (includingParamount+ original programming), andWarner Bros. Discovery (includingHBO andHBO Max original programming).[40][45]
In July 2017, Hotstar gained domestic streaming rights to first-run and library programming fromShowtime.[46] Rights to new Showtime content later moved toViacom18'sVoot (a sister of Showtime via parent companyParamount Global).[47] In October 2018, Hotstar partnered withHooq to offer its content on its premium service, including rights to films and series from its co-ownersSony Pictures andWarner Bros., as well as its other content partners.[48] The partnership ended following Hooq's liquidation in April 2020.[49] The partnership with HBO ended in 2023.[32] Rights to both HBO and Paramount content returned to the service in February 2025 following the JioCinema merger.[40]
Some early original content on the service included thenews satire programOn Air With AIB andCinePlay. In March 2019, the service launched a new premium original content brand,Hotstar Specials, with the first production beingRoar of the Lion—a docudrama miniseries chronicling theChennai Super Kings in the2018 Indian Premier League. Hotstar stated that these series would be at least six episodes in length, be available in seven regional languages (Bengali,Hindi,Kannada,Malayalam,Marathi,Tamil andTelugu)[50] and focus on providing "big-scale, high-quality drama". Hotstar partnered with a large number of Indian filmmakers to produce a series for the brand.[51][52][53]
In June 2020, Hotstar announced that it would begin to offerdirect-to-streaming premieres of Indian films under the "Disney+ Hotstar Multiplex" banner due to COVID-19-related cinema closures, beginning withStar Studios'Dil Bechara on 24 July 2020, followed byThe Big Bull,Lootcase,Khuda Haafiz,Laxmii,Bhuj: The Pride of India,Sadak 2, andMookuthi Amman.[54]
The following digital streaming rights were held as of 13 February 2025 (Indian markets only):
In May 2025,JioHotstar secured the exclusive digital streaming rights for2025 Tendulkar-Anderson Trophy, following a sub-licensing agreement withSony Entertainment Network, which retained linear television rights.[55]
Hotstar used to allow users to stream on up to four devices concurrently depending on their plan, and downloads for offline viewing depending on individual content licenses. Most content is able to be streamed in resolutions up to1080p. after rebranded as Disney+ Hotstar in April 2020, Disney+ Hotstar started rolling outDolby Digital sound onAndroid TV,Apple TV,Amazon Fire TV,Amazon Fire HD, andRoku,[56] and later4K withHDR in August 2020, initially for Apple TV and Android TV devices.[57]
In India, the service was previously offered with "VIP" and "Premium" subscription tiers, which were differentiated by their content libraries (with the Premium tier featuring more premium international series and films). In September 2021, Disney+ Hotstar introduced a new plan structure based on device support and concurrent streams (more akin to that of Netflix), with "Mobile" allowing a single stream on a mobile device only, "Super" allowing streams on up to two devices simultaneously, and "Premium" allowing streaming on up to four devices simultaneously, and with 4K support. Under the new plan structure, the same content library became available to all Disney+ Hotstar subscribers regardless of tier.[58][59] and now same as in JioHotstar.
The service is also available in a free ad-supported version.[40]
On 4 September 2017,Star Sports acquired the media rights to theIndian Premier League, with Hotstar acting as the international digital rightsholder. Hotstar launched an international subscription service in Canada and the United States, aimed towards providing its domestic Indian content and sports.[60][61] Hotstar launched in the United Kingdom on 13 September 2018, to coincide with the2018 Asia Cup.[62]
On 4 January 2019, Star discontinued its international linear pay television channels in the United States (such asStarPlus), pivoting its focus in the region to Hotstar.[63] On 31 August 2021, Disney announced that it would, in turn, discontinue Hotstar in the United States, in favour of hosting its sports and entertainment content onESPN+ and Hulu respectively beginning 1 September. Annual subscribers who had not yet subscribed to Disney's streaming services were provided with an offer to receive the Disney Bundle (Disney+, ESPN+, and Hulu) at no cost for the remainder of their Hotstar subscription period.[64] The shutdown was later scheduled for 30 November 2021.[65]
In August 2019, Disney CEOBob Iger stated that plans were in place for the expansion of Hotstar intoSoutheast Asia.[66] In August 2020, it was announced that Disney+ Hotstar would launch in Indonesia on 5 September 2020, marking the unified service's first expansion outside of India.[26] On 19 October 2020, Star India announced the launch of Hotstar in Singapore, which took place on 1 November 2020.[67] On 25 February 2021, it was reported that Disney+ Hotstar would launch in Malaysia and Thailand in 2021.[68] The service launched in Malaysia on 1 June 2021,[69] and in Thailand on 30 June.[70]
In addition to content from Disney's library, the Southeast Asian versions of Disney+ Hotstar also had a large focus on domestic acquisitions. In Indonesia, Hotstar reached content supply agreements with studios such asFalcon Pictures [id],MD Pictures [id],Rapi Films,Soraya Intercine Films,Screenplay Films, andStarvision Plus [id] among others, and also acquired first-run direct-to-streaming releases (which are being marketed asHotstar Originals). To appeal to the localIndian ethnicity population, the service also carriesHindi cinema films subtitled ordubbed into theIndonesian language.[71][72]
The Malaysian version of the service has similarly reached deals with studios such as Skop Productions, Revolution Media Films,Media Prima,WAU Animation, Act 2 Pictures,Les' Copaque Production and Red Films to carry films on the platform, with some being released direct-to-streaming.[69] The Thai version reached agreements with studios and broadcasters such asGDH,GMM 25,Kantana Group,One 31, andSahamongkolfilm, and has licensed content from other East Asian regions such as China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.[73][74]
In January 2022, Disney+ Hotstar announced that it had acquired rights to theWWE Network in Indonesia, with its content and live events becoming available on the platform at no additional charge, but ended in 2024.[75]
On 9 October 2025, Disney+ Hotstar was rebranded asDisney+ in Southeast Asian countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. Disney made this global change to streamline its services and make the viewer experience more consistent; as part of this, the Star brand was replaced by Hulu.[2]
| Country/Territory | Release date | Release partner |
|---|---|---|
| India |
| None |
| Canada | 4 September 2017[61] | None |
| United States | ||
| United Kingdom | 13 September 2018[62] | |
| Singapore | 1 November 2020[67] | StarHub |
| Country/Territory | Release date | Release partner |
|---|---|---|
| India |
| None |
| Indonesia | 5 September 2020[26] | |
| Malaysia | 1 June 2021[69] | |
| Thailand | 30 June 2021[70] | AIS[73] |
| Country/Territory | Release date | Release partner |
|---|---|---|
| India |
| Viacom18 |
Note:-
1.In India Hotstar was launched in 2015 later rebranded as Disney+ Hotstar in 2020.lastly in 2025 it rebranded as JioHotstar.
2.InUS It was shut down as Hotstar on 30 November 2021 and its contents were moved to Hulu and ESPN+ now available asDisney+.
3.InIndonesia,Malaysia,Thailand it rebranded toDisney+ on 8 October 2025[2].
4.InCanada,United Kingdom,Singapore Hotstar still operates and also Disney+.
The HBO seriesLast Week Tonight faced several instances of censorship on Hotstar since the purchase of the service by Disney; two episodes were edited to remove jokes referencing Disney characters, including a November 2019 episode on theUS census relating to a PSA featuringMickey Mouse (where Oliver claimed the character was a "crack addict"; a scene was also cropped to obscure a graphic relating to the joke),[79] and a joke aboutDonald Duck having a penis "shaped like a corkscrew" during an episode discussing China'sone-child policy.[80][81] In February 2020, Hotstar refused to carry an episode that contained segments critical of prime ministerNarendra Modi, which had opined that his policy ofHindu nationalism was a growing threat to democracy in India.[82][83][84]
The programme's hostJohn Oliver addressed all three instances of censorship by Hotstar in the 8 March 2020 episode. He placed a larger emphasis on the censorship of Disney references, however (noting that he had playedZazu in Disney's 2019 CGI remake ofThe Lion King), jokingly arguing that he resented the censorship of his "factually accurate" Donald Duck joke more than the Modi episode being pulled.[80][81]
The service was highly criticised and ridiculed upon its launch in Thailand for the censorship and editing of Disney content, where violent and/or suggestive scenes were cut out or blurred, with a majority of titles being cropped to fit 16:9 widescreen televisions and/or also sped up to 25 frames per second (PAL).[85] On 14 July 2021, during a live podcast hosted by Thai news reporter Jomquan Laopetch, Disney Southeast Asia and Thailand general manager, direct-to-consumer Winradit Kolasastraseni stated that he was aware of the issues and admitted they were theQC team's fault; the service has been replacing censored/edited video files with their original cuts since then.[86]
.svg)
