Disney+Hotstar to end deal with HBO; what does it mean for India's OTT streaming?

In a piece of sad news for Game Of Thrones and Succession fans, a number of HBO shows are all set to go off-air from Disney+Hotstar on 31 March 2023. Shortly after Disney CEO Bob Iger announced cost-cutting measures and restructuring at the company, the streaming platform took to Twitter and announced that it has ended its partnership with HBO and thus will not stream any of HBO content. It definitely comes as a big heartbreak for viewers as HBO is known for producing some blockbuster shows like Industr_y, Lovecraft Country, Chernobyl, I May Destroy You, Succession, The Wire,_ and The Sopranos, with many of them remaining popular even after decades of going on-air. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that HBO has well-served Gen X!

What does it mean for India’s OTT streaming?

Ever since the news of Disney+Hotstar losing its content tie-up deal with HBO came out, people are coming on social media to share multiple reactions. As said by the insiders of the TV industry, the loss of this deal is less damaging for the streaming platform in comparison to the loss that it faced after losing the OTT telecast rights of the Indian Premier League to Viacom18’s Voot last year. On the other hand, a former HBO Max executive while speaking on the development shared how HBO has been meeting all the OTT players in India to finalise a deal but has not managed to bag anything yet as their monetary ask is way too much for OTTs in India now. Notably, after Discovery, Inc. and AT&T Inc. announced closing a deal with WarnerMedia, the combined media and entertainment company presently houses three streaming services including HBO Max, Discovery+, and CNN+; Warner Bros. studio besides many other cable channels such as TNT, TBS, Food Network, Investigation Discovery, TLC, Discovery, truTV, Travel Channel, MotorTrend, Animal Planet, Science Channel, New Line Cinema, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, HGTV and HBO, among others. While India presently has Comedy Central on a cable TV channel, the combined service will include all the content of both streamers. As stated in a report by TechCrunch, Amazon may be one place where one can view HBO content in the future as the firm last year signed a deal with Amazon for streaming rights to some HBO content. As per another report, the subscriber base for HBO content in India is niche and has a relatively low reach on Disney+ Hotstar. Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.