“ There is no such thing as a bad weekend” is a famous quote that relates to the choices people look up to make their short weekend fun. A perfect option is to sit on the couch munching some snacks and watching a favorite movie with a loved companion or bunch of friends.

Most people like to seclude themselves from the buzzy noise and misty smoke of the outside world and stay home. The best option to waste time at home is watching movies. Streaming platforms are the blessed solution for many out there.

Hotstar Business Model

Streaming platforms are on-demand services that operate on an internet connection. The user can download the app on a mobile device or access the built-in TV feature. The streaming includes TV shows, movies, documentaries, and live sports. All video content can be viewed in real time without worrying about memory consumption or time for download.

The best streaming app available on many mobile is HotStar. The app can be downloaded to the Play Store for free, but users must pick a service from the different subscription plans to view the content.

A quick recap of HotStar’s evolution over the years. Hotstar launched in 2015 combined with Walt Disney Company’s service Disney+in 2019 and upgraded itself to Disney+HotStar.

The app is reported to have around 38.3 million subscribers. The HotStar app has a huge reach because of its functional business model. Disney+Hotstar is one perfect example of an over-the-top (OTT) media service or streaming media service.

How HotStar captured millions of viewers?

Indian people have a conflicting interest in media. HotStar perfectly balances the needs and updates its content as per interests. The application has expanded massively and set foot in almost all Indian households. The Indian people are ardent movie lovers and HotStar never misses to entertain them with different genres of movies. The content open to customers is large in number. The old classics also shine in the library along with the recent releases. The browsing option allows users to use keywords and search for the content they are looking for.

Languages do not hold people back from watching their favorite TV shows and movies. HotStar considered even the slightest taste of users and opted to provide subtitles in the preferred language to make the users feel the touch of perfectness. The multilingual support feature is one excellent approach by HotStar to tie up viewers irrespective of language. The feature is supported in TV shows, movies, sports, and news.

Entertainment is not confined only to adults, kids also have the benefit of watching Disney’s classics and their favorite characters with the Hotstar app. The name Disney itself is mesmerizing and it is the main reason to bring fairy tales into reality. The application has them all updated in their library and is available on demand.

Subscription is the basis to view the contents of the app. The pricing is very reasonable and affordable allowing users to view 100,000 hours of data. The premium subscription allows the users to watch TV shows a day ahead they are relayed on TV. Hotstar allows users to download their most liked programs and view them to their liking.

HotStar tracks the preferences and choice of videos users like to play. It offers suggestions and picks them with choices so the user does need not to spend time thinking about what to watch next. The queue of contents it holds to watch seems never-ending. Such is the power of HotStar to provide seamless options to hold them fully engaged.

HotStar understood the need of the hour expanded its vision and started focussing on original TV shows and movies. HotStar delivers its personally produced shows quicker on its platform and allows its users the prime spot to view them first. The investment reaped its benefits by attracting many customers. HotStar attained full authority over its contents and strengthened its value. The own production has relieved HotStar from licensing and copyright issues when involved with third-party sources.

The cricket fan world has continually supported HotStar as the app has provided them the liberty to watch their favorite Indian Premier League live with superior audio and video quality. Imagine the privilege, a fan gets to watch his dream team playing wherever you are at a reasonable subscription. Not only cricket, but Hotstar also takes a keen interest in relaying all sports events like football, kabaddi, hockey, tennis, and many others as preferred by its users.

HotStar enforces operating kids’ shows with parental guidance by personalizing the account as the primary profile and kids’ profile. The kids can watch age-appropriate content with suggestions when they log in with the kid’s profile. The users can swap between two profiles and enjoy the streaming. Hotstar permits up to 7 profiles for a single subscription. The premium plan subscription does wonders allowing one subscription account to enjoy a max of 10 device log-ins and 3 videos streaming at a time.

The real-time streaming of videos with HD quality never makes the user miss the cinematic experience. The subscription is much cheaper than the amount to spend on movie tickets. The OTT platform allows users to refresh old movies and count back good memories. Users can pause and play, skip as they watch and the playback speed can also be adjusted. The user-friendly features make it the most preferred streaming platform.

HotStar business model- How does it make money?

The ways revenue is earned explain the idea of the HotStar Business Model. Let’s learn more about its revenue strategies.

Advertising on HotStar

Hotstar gains customers’ insight even in ad content. It tracks user interest, past ad history, and the user’s destination. Hotstar collaborates personally with the marketing team requesting ads and not through ad agencies. This practice saves the commission spent between 5-15 % per ad. It has set up a personal advertisement unit to maintain all tasks. If the user watches the ad fully the advertiser has to pay a separate amount for it and Hotstar looks for similar product ads. This is a win-win situation for the advertiser and HotStar. Hotstar advertises to promote International brands to reach the target audience effectively.

Subscription Revenue

Hotstar app can be downloaded for free and to access the majority of content the user has to choose from one of the subscription plans provided. Hotstar users can avail premium subscription at INR 399/year, which provides them the key to the exclusive content of watching movies, TV shows, live sports, and International Shows. The VIP subscription comes with a price of INR 1,499/year with an extra bundle of offers like ad-free content viewing and movies at lower prices comparatively in addition to all content of HotStar. The subscription has earned a substantial amount over the years.

Partnership and license

Hotstar has set up its production unit and is releasing many contents which are liked by people. If any other streaming platform wants the original content from Disney, then the license agreement is proceeded along with a decent sum of money. It earns a hefty sum with its partners in content streaming. Hotstar has a partnership with telecom operators that provide internet accessibility to devices. All might have known that if you recharge with an Airtel operator Hotstar is free for a certain amount of time. Now Airtel has to pay HotStar for this bonding. Hotstar is tied up with all credit card companies, this generates revenue and business to both ends.

LIVE Sports Broadcasting

HotStar is the exclusive head in airing IPL the famous sports event of Indians. HotStar takes the situation in hand and earns through subscriptions and advertisements during the match season and attracts a large audience. The same is applicable for other sports events.

The above factors typically explain the business model of Hotstar and its business tactics to earn and market its platform.

An Overview of how streaming works in HotStar

If you are a cricket fan then you must not have missed the chance to enjoy IPL streamed on Hotstar. Have you ever thought about the backend technical efforts involved in HotStar earning huge profits every season of IPL? An amazing data that leaves us astonished is that HotStar managed 5.6 Crore viewers online during the live stream. A commendable effort from HotStar. Let’s have a brief check into the key aspects involved in the success of its streaming.

When viewing content online the unpredictable turn is the number of users viewing. The statistics show irregular spikes. The deviation in demand is handled by data distributed across multiple servers following distributed architecture. Even if one server fails data can be replicated and processed by other servers. The live content with many data streams was successfully handled by Apache Kafka.
Hotstar has viewers across the globe so to avoid latency and fast content delivery it uses a robust Content Delivery Network (CDN) that speeds the delivery of streams by storing copies of files in a data center close to them. This reduces fetching time and delivers digital content quickly. The entire setup of Disney has 16TBs of RAM, 8000 CPU cores, peak speed of 32Gbps for data transfer.
HotStar design approach incorporates microservices architecture where the application is split into microtasks each performing a specific assigned task independently. The microtasks communicate via APIs. This helps the work to get done faster in live streams.
The amount of data handled by HotStar is excessively large when data is streamed live so it gets help from Load Balancer to ensure that the work is distributed equally among all servers. This facilitates handling concurrent users during peak streaming time.
Hotstar has built fast streaming pipelines for capturing data and insights of customers using the platform and relaying data without delay with enhanced broadcast quality.

Future Outlook of Hotstar

The happy news about HotStar is its new merger with JioCinema. The process is on the go and after its completion, the main target is to access more than 100 TV channels. The IPL 2025 will be streaming on Hotstar. The reassuring days are to soon bloom for HotStar with the added features of JioCinema. A thoughtful approach is to air LIVE News at a reasonable price throwing aside TV to attract users. The HotStar app is constantly working in the notion to reach all corners. Let’s all look forward to the change and wish you success.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the benefit of Hotstar?

Hotstar is an on-demand subscription service to watch TV shows, movies, and live sports events anytime, anywhere at affordable prices in preferred languages.

How many users can use one HotStar account?

The user can watch and enjoy shows on 4 devices at the same time with one paid active account.

Is it possible to watch Hotstar without a subscription?

The user can download the app from the Play Store for free and get to watch content labeled as free, movie trailers. To enjoy all benefits it is better to choose the subscription plans.

What videos are available on Hotstar?

HotStar is a video library with 60000+ hours of TV shows, 2000 and more Indian movies, and Live sports such as cricket, kabaddi, badminton, and hockey.

Can users watch Hotstar content on TV?

Yes, users have the benefit of accessing the contents of HotStar on Smart TV, Connected TV, and Desktop through a subscription.

Keynotes to end

This Hotstar Business model is a clear-cut example of how technology has shrunk the theatre screen to handheld devices. Technology is never predictable with pros and cons. To feel the power of technology and to reach millions of people through apps the destination to arrive is SMARTHER. The fully equipped technological library with smart and capable experts helps clients achieve the needed results. SMARTHER is a well-established software company that shows a keen interest in supporting innovative ideas. SMARTHER has developed more than 500+ apps on both Android and iOS Platforms. SMARTHER aspires to develop apps for businesses and achieve operational excellence. Get in touch with us and be ready for the transformation.