Hotstar the leading OTT video-on-demand platform which recently rebranded itself to Disney+ Hotstar after Walt Disney bought 21st Century Fox, the parent company of Star network India, has now ended its partnership with HOOQ the southeast Asian streaming service. HOOQ had entered into the liquidation process last month and has already axed the jobs of 240 staff members.
Hotstar has already removed most of the HOOQ Tv shows like Arrow, The Flash, Wonder Woman, etc. while it has listed movie titles like Mortal Kombat, Sherlock Holmes, The Dark Knight, Gravity, Pacific Rim, The Notebook, etc. under the ‘Leaving Hotstar soon’ category. With this Hotstar loses access to content from Warner Bros, Sony Pictures, Lionsgate and Miramax. Hotstar continues to house content from international studios like Disney, HBO, Fox, and Showtime.
“Global and local content providers are increasingly going direct, the cost of content remains high, and emerging-market consumers’ willingness to pay has increased only gradually amid an increasing array of choices. Because of these changes, a viable business model for an independent, OTT distribution platform has become increasingly challenged. As a result, HOOQ has not been able to grow sufficiently to provide sustainable returns nor cover escalating content costs and the continuous operating costs of an independent OTT distribution platform”
a HOOQ spokesperson said in a statement.
HOOQ which is a joint venture between Singapore telecom group Singtel (majority owner), Sony Pictures and Warner Bros Entertainment had entered into a partnership with Hotstar in 2018 whereby Hotstar got access to HOOQ’s entire premium video library and HOOQ got access to Hotstar’s huge subscriber base, making it a win-win for both.
