Ready to binge watch? Hotstar gets access to Disney's film library

After Disney India and Star India announced a television rights deal in December last year, allowing the latter’s broadcast network access to the studio’s film library, the former has now extended the partnership to include the digital rights to its movie library to Hotstar as well.

This deal means Hotstar now holds the rights to Hollywood content from Fox, HBO and Disney, giving it access to a chunk of the popular Hollywood content in India.

Some of the titles from the library have gone live and they include popular movies like the Ironman trilogy, Marvel’s Avengers, Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger. With the Disney titles coming to Hotstar, the over-the-top (OTT) platform, led by Ajit Mohan, now has all the Marvel characters excluding Spiderman (which could come under Disney in a couple of years after Marvel’s deal with Sony Pictures expires). 

Since Fox has the rights to the X-Men and Fantastic Four, movies with these superheroes were already available on Hotstar, the latest addition being Deadpool.

Disney has a similar deal in the US with Netflix. The deal came into effect in September 2016, giving Netflix access to old and new titles from Disney. 

Superhero films from Hollywood are picking up in India as is evident from the recent success of Deadpool (Rs 33 crore in box office collections), and Captain America: Civil War (Rs  60 crore) in 2016.

Hotstar’s tie-up with Disney shows that the OTT scene in India is far from settling down. If 2016 was the year of launches, 2017 is poised to be a year of innovation, acquisition and securing one’s niche. Amazon Prime Video made its big-bang entry into India with Bollywood library acquisitions through deals with home-grown studios like Dharma, Yash Raj and T-Series. Netflix will be ramping up its Indian content through originals co-produced with Indian producers like Phantom Films and acquisition of indie films from India. VOOT, on the other hand, will continue with its strategy of originals, comedy, kids’ content and exclusive digital content around Viacom18’s successful television shows.

So is this Hotstar’s answer to Amazon Prime Videos’ library content acquisition in India? Mohan says not. “For us the reasons for beefing up the library are very different. The conversation with Disney has been on for a couple of years now. We want to push the premium segment (the paid content) on Hotstar and feel that the acquisition of these movies will help with this. The data show us that a major chunk of content consumed by premium consumers is Hollywood content (shows and movies),” he reveals.

The movies Hotstar will be able to add to its library include the animated features under the Disney Princess franchise, as well as those from Lucas Films and Pixar (both studios acquired by Disney), which means the Star Wars titles and animated films like Cars, Toy Story and Wall-E. 

Amrita Pandey, vice-president, Studios, Disney India, said: “Our movies have met with much success in theatres this year. This deal is important for us as it enables us to offer our movies across the Disney, Marvel, Star Wars and Pixar brands and our ABC Studios’ TV shows to our audience wherever they are. Hotstar Premium is an ideal home for our content and it gives subscribers across the country, the chance to revisit their loved stories.”

Mohan says the Hollywood movie and show library will help increase consumption on connected devices (smart Tvs). In his earlier interactions with Business Standard, Mohan had said that connected devices were showing significant growth in terms of consumption of premium content. 

“A lot of these movies are best experienced in HD on big screens and with Hotstar gaining popularity among connected devices users, this will definitely add to the proposition Hotstar presents to premium customers,” he said.