Disney+ Hotstar joins the Disney streaming bundle as the service prepares to withdraw the platform in the U.S. in late 2022. The content available on will be divided between Hulu and ESPN+. Content like Bollywood and South Asian films, including specials like The Empire, Aarya, Criminal Justice and Dil Bechara, will be found in Hulu.
Cricket matches, which remain the most-watched content on Hotstar, from the Indian Premier League, International Cricket Council Men’s T20 World Cup and Board of Control for Cricket will stream live on ESPN+.Disney said that the Disney+ will remain the same and will not subsume any programming from Hotstar at this time.
The Disney streaming bundle, which gives subscribers access to Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ beginning at $13.99 a month, will also be at the same price after Hotstar content is migrated over. Hotstar currently costs $49.99 a year in the U.S.Disney acquired the streaming service in 2019 through its $71.3 billion deal for most of 20th Century Fox’s assets. The streaming service, available in different iterations in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Canada, the U.K., and the U.S., was rebranded as Disney+in 2020.
The streaming service accounts for roughly 40% of the total 116 million users who subscribe to Disney+, Christine McCarthy, Disney’s chief financial officer, said during the company’s latest quarterly earnings call in August. McCarthy said that Hotstar also accounted for the majority of Disney+’s net subscriber additions during the second and third quarters of this year.ESPN+ featuring more than 30 IPL matches, will live stream Indian Premier League in the U.S.
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