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HBO Content to Move From Disney+ Hotstar From March 31: Details

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HBO content such as Game of Thrones, The Last of Us, and Euphoria will be leaving Disney+ Hotstar by the end of March 2023. Replying to a tweet, Hotstar’s support team confirmed that starting March 31, HBO shows and movies will not be available to watch on the streaming platform, which has been the key destination for Indians to access the WarnerMedia content after the company discontinued HBO cable TV channels in the country in 2020. Of course, all Disney material, which includes Marvel and Star Wars content, will remain on the platform.

“Starting 31st March, HBO content will be unavailable on Disney+ Hotstar. You can continue enjoying Disney+ Hotstar’s vast library of content spanning over 100,000 hours of TV Shows and Movies in 10 languages and coverage of major global sporting events,” the tweet reads. A report from last month suggested that the shake-up is in line with some restructuring and cost-cutting plans returning Disney CEO Bob Iger announced, which included the layoffs of 7,000 workers. The original licensing deal between the two parties was signed back in late 2015 — when the platform was simply called ‘Hotstar’ — which brought over HBO content to the streaming service. At the time, Game of Thrones was a huge draw, which began streaming on Hotstar in India immediately after it finished airing in the US.

The Indian Premier League (IPL) was another major source of traffic for Disney+ Hotstar, but took a big hit when Viacom18 bagged the digital streaming rights for it — for the next five years. Disney Star still holds the TV broadcast rights for it, though.

Additionally, Hotstar also did not renew the streaming rights for Formula 1 in 2023, with that content moving over to F1 TV Pro. That said, other sports content such as the Premier League, the Indian Super League, and select international cricket matches are still available to stream.

There were signs of some internal shake-up happening, long before the initial report. Normally, it is understood that in India, all HBO shows would appear on Disney+ Hotstar. However, when The Last of Us was gearing up for its premiere on January 15 around the world, the company never put up any banners or advertisements for the same, while the PR and support teams were still unsure of whether the series will be coming to India, after all. On January 16, however, the pilot just dropped with no prior announcement, to the surprise of fans, and has been strictly following a weekly schedule — save for episode 5, which was brought forward by two days to avoid clashing with the Super Bowl LVII event.

With Succession’s fourth and final season poised to drop on Disney+ Hotstar on March 26, it will be interesting to see how the company handles it. They could either release episode 1 and then shut down all HBO content, or avoid premiering the pilot altogether. Nevertheless, if you still haven’t caught up on the current fan-favourite The Last of Us series, The White Lotus, or any other HBO show, now would be a good time, since as of now, there is no solid confirmation for where the HBO content will end up. Industry analysts suggest Amazon Prime Video is a good candidate, where it could be packaged along with its usual content or provided as a separate subscription-based paid channel — akin to AMC+.


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Game of Thrones Season 1

  • Release Date 27 February 2013
  • Genre Action, Adventure, Drama, Fantasy
  • Cast

    Sean Bean, Mark Addy, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Michelle Fairley, Lena Headey, Emilia Clarke, Iain Glen, Harry Lloyd, Kit Harington, Sophie Turner, Maisie Williams, Richard Madden, Alfie Allen, Isaac Hempstead Wright, Jack Gleeson, Rory McCann, Peter Dinklage, Aidan Gillen

  • Director

    Tim Van Patten, Brian Kirk, Daniel Minahan, Alan Taylor

  • Producer

    Mark Huffam, Joanna Burn, Frank Doelger, Chris Newman, Greg Spence, Lisa McAtackney, Bryan Cogman, Duncan Muggoch

The Last of Us Season 1

  • Release Date 16 January 2023
  • Genre Action, Drama, Thriller
  • Cast

    Pedro Pascal, Bella Ramsey, Anna Torv, Nick Offerman, Gabriel Luna, Merle Dandridge, Nico Parker, Murray Bartlett, Storm Reid, Jeffrey Pierce, Lamar Johnson, Keivonn Woodard, Graham Greene, Elaine Miles, Melanie Lynskey

  • Director

    Kantemir Balagov

  • Producer

    Craig Mazin, Neil Druckmann, Carolyn Strauss, Rose Lam, Evan Wells, Asad Qizilbash, Carter Swan

Euphoria Season 1

  • Release Date 17 June 2019
  • Genre Drama
  • Cast

    Zendaya, Hunter Schafer, Hunter Schafer

  • Director

    Augustine Frizzell, Sam Levinson, Jennifer Morrison, Pippa Bianco

  • Producer

    Sam Levinson, Kevin Turen, Ravi Nandan, Drake, Adel Future Nur, Ron Leshem, Daphna Levin, nowrap, Hadas Mozes Lichtenstein, Gary Lennon, Mirit Toovi, Tmira Yardeni, Yoram Mokadi, Jim Kleverweis, Zendaya, Tyler Romary, Philipp A. Barnett, Jamie Feldman, Kenneth Yu

Succession Season 4

  • Genre Comedy, Drama
  • Cast

    Nicholas Braun, Brian Cox, Kieran Culkin, Peter Friedman, Matthew Macfadyen, Alan Ruck, Sarah Snook, Jeremy Strong, J. Smith-Cameron, Dagmara Dominczyk, Justine Lupe, David Rasche, Scott Nicholson, Hiam Abbass, Fisher Stevens, Arian Moayed, Juliana Canfield

  • Director

    Mark Mylod, Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini, Becky Martin

The White Lotus Season 1

  • Release Date 12 July 2021
  • Genre Comedy, Drama, Mystery
  • Cast

    Murray Bartlett, Connie Britton, Jennifer Coolidge, Alexandra Daddario, Fred Hechinger, Jake Lacy, Brittany O’Grady, Natasha Rothwell, Sydney Sweeney, Steve Zahn, Molly Shannon

  • Director

    Mike White

  • Producer

    Nick Hall, David Bernad, Mike White

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