Disney Plus Hotstar is one of the most popular streaming platforms in India, with a significant market share in the Indian OTT industry. However, the platform is about to undergo significant changes as several movies and TV shows, as well as major live sports events, are leaving the service. While Disney and its subsidiaries’ titles, as well as the English Premier League (EPL) and International Cricket Council (ICC) tournaments, will remain available, critically acclaimed shows like The Last of Us, Game of Thrones, and Euphoria will no longer be accessible on the platform in India.
Here’s a quick overview of everything that is leaving Disney Plus Hotstar:
Table of Contents
What is leaving Disney Plus Hotstar?
HBO Originals
As part of its cost-cutting measures and company restructuring, Disney has cut ties with HBO and is letting go of all the HBO Originals content available on the platform starting April 1st. These include several popular and well-received shows such as Game of Thrones, The Last of Us, and Euphoria among many others.
These HBO movies and shows are leaving Disney Plus Hotstar:
- Game of Thrones
- House of the Dragon
- Euphoria
- The Last of Us
- Ballers
- Band of Brothers
- Catch and Kill
- Curb Your Enth
- Entourage
- Mare of Easttown
- Mind Over Murder
- Obama
- Scenes from a Marriage
- Shaq
- Succession
- The Baby
- The Gilded Age
- The Nevers
- The Sopranos
- The Time Traveller’s Wife
- The Wire
- Undercurrent
- Watchmen
- We Own this City
HBO hasn’t announced anything yet, per reports, the TV shows and movies might go to Amazon Prime Video.
F1
With F1 introducing its very own subscription-based OTT platform called F1 TV in India, all the upcoming Grand Prix seasons will be live-streamed exclusively on the app giving Disney Plus Hotstar subscribers another huge blow. F1 fans will have to shell out a minimum of Rs 299 per month to get access to the race live streams on the F1 TV app.
IPL
Formerly known as Hotstar, the platform has been showcasing live IPL matches way before even Disney acquired Star India in 2017 and rebranded it to Disney+ Hostar. A major setback came in when the entertainment conglomerate (Disney) failed to obtain the digital rights for the 2023-2027 IPL cycle in the media rights auction held in June last year. Reliance-backed Viacom 18 is the new live streaming partner of the TATA IPL 2023. It is providing exclusive access to the star-studded tournament for free on JioCinema.
What can you watch on Disney Plus Hotstar?
With IPL, F1, and HBO Original shows no longer being served on the platform, Disney Plus Hotstar subscribers can still binge-watch and enjoy a vast portfolio of content including Marvel movies and series, Star Wars franchise shows, Hotstar Specials, Nat Geo documentaries, and live streaming of EPL, ISL, India cricket tours, upcoming Cricket World Cup 2023, and a few other sporting events.
For the uninitiated, Disney+ Originals includes all the content that has been produced exclusively for streaming on Disney+ and Disney+ Hotstar. Apart from Star Wars spinoffs and core Disney-based series, this category also features Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) TV shows that are interconnected to mainstream Marvel movies in some way or the other.
With the acquisition of Fox, Disney+ Hotstar users can also enjoy thousands of hours of movie content. Apart from that, just like Disney+ Originals that are released worldwide, the media giant caters to the Indian audience through Hotstar Specials which are movies and shows made exclusively for the platform. Popular shows under this category include The Night Manager, Taaza Khabar, and Aarya, among others.
Lastly, being a Star Network product, Disney+ Hotstar gains all TV serials and soaps that are broadcasted on Star TV channels such as Star Plus, Star Utsav, Star Bharat, and Star World.
