India's Disney+ Hotstar platform plans to drop content from HBO, including "House of the Dragon" and "Succession," according to a new report from Deadline.
HBO content has streamed on the Hotstar service in India since 2016, and helped to grow the platform.
- In general, English-language content remains a niche market in India; no longer paying licensing fees for HBO shows is an obvious cost-cutting maneuver.
- Disney+ Hotstar's subscriber base dropped by 6% in Q4 2022, after the platform lost the rights to the Indian Premier League cricket tournament to Viacom18.
- Many Indian industry insiders believe that Amazon will pick up HBO content in the country; Prime Video India already streams content from HBO Max's sister service, Discovery+.
