Disney+ Hotstar expected to generate US$900 million in India alone by 2025

Disney+ Hotstar, the recently rebranded version of the Star India streamer, is set to become the second highest revenue earning video platform in India by 2025.

According to new figures from Media Partners Asia, the SVOD acquired by Disney as a part of the US$71 merger with 20th Century Fox, will see its revenue grow from US$216 million in 2019 to US$902 million by 2025 – with US$587 million generated from subscriptions and US$314 million from advertising.

This growth will see Disney+ Hotstar behind only YouTube as far as revenue generating platforms in India go and comes in spite of forecast contraction to US$175 million in 2020 as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

The research firm estimated that in 2020, the service will make US$104 million from subscriptions and US$74 million in advertising.

In terms of users, the report projects that Disney+ Hotstar will have 18 million paying subscribers – pushing it out ahead of Amazon Prime Video with 17 million and almost four times the subscribers of Netflix which is expected to reach 5 million subs.

With over 400 million app downloads, the service is widely used albeit with an inconsistent viewership. The service is noted as having around 300 million monthly active users during the IPL cricket season, but Star has had difficulty in maintaining a steady audience for the rest of the year. Disney has bet on integrating Disney+ with Hotstar in an attempt to keep a more consistent audience and that strategy seemingly is starting to bear fruit.

During its most recent earnings call, the company noted that of its 54.5 million global Disney+ subscribers, 8 million were in India. The call came only a couple of weeks after Disney+ Hotstar’s April 3 launch, indicating a positive start for the SVOD.