File:Hotstar-official-logo.jpeg | |
Screenshot
File:Hotstar screenshot.png Hotstar website screenshot | |
Type of site | Video on demand |
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Available in | |
Headquarters | Mumbai , Maharashtra |
Area served | India , United States of America, Canada and United Kingdom |
Owner | Star India (21st Century Fox) |
Industry | Streaming |
Services | On-demand video streaming |
Website | www |
Launched | February 2015 |
Current status | Active |
Hotstar is an Indian digital and mobile entertainment platform launched in 6 February 2015 by Star India. It is owned by Novi Digital Entertainment, a wholly owned subsidiary of Star India.[1] Launched in 6 February 2015, it provides streaming media and video-on-demand services.[2][3] It is available on Web, Android, iOS, and Apple TV platforms.
The beta version of hotstar.com went live in January 2015, Star India officially launched hotstar in February 2015. Primarily intended to serve as a mobile application that would support streaming of the 2015 Cricket World Cup with some entertainment content, it had 1 million downloads within six days of its launch and doubled that number in ten days [4]. Gradually, Hotstar expanded its offerings, and as of 2018 the platform hosts over 100,000 hours of content, spread across 17 languages.
In September 2017, Star India won the worldwide IPL media rights for TV and digital broadcast for a five-year period, from 2018 to 2022. With 14 companies tendering bids, Star beat out the competition with an offer of INR 16,347.5 crore (USD 2.55 billion), a 158% increase in the media rights value for IPL broadcasting from the previous cycle. [5]
Towards the end of 2017, Hotstar launched its premium service in the United States and Canada on the country's respective iOS AppStore and Google Play stores. [6]
The app garnered 340 million views for all 49 matches during the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 and over 200 million views during the Indian Premier League Season 8, this year.[7] With over 100 million downloads, hotstar has more than 100 advertisers on the platform. Hotstar contents are provided either free of cost or on a subscription basis. Premium contents are available only to premium membership holders. Bulk of their revenue generation is through advertisements.[8]
In addition to the website, Hotstar is available as an application across mobile devices which are on Android, iOS and Apple TV[9] platforms. Hotstar Android application is currently available in India , USA and Canada.[10]