Mumbai : So it is finally here. Hotstar, which is India’s leading TV and Films and Sports and other content app, all fully free but supported by advertising, has now also announced a premium service, and will begin it with one of the most popular TV shows in the world, Game Of Thrones, Season 6, which will become available to premium subscribers all over India ‘Minutes After America’ and ‘Unspoiled’.
The premium service will cost Rs 199 per month, and will offer the latest American TV Shows and Movies, ‘Minutes After America’ and ‘Unspoiled’, exclusively on Hotstar. While Minutes After America is clear, Unspoiled probably means there will be no ads as it is a premium service.
The premium content of many top TV Series and Hollywood Movies, will be viewable in HD on mobile, Tablet and Computer, but not on the browser, and in India only. Most of the content that is being offered is from the popular HBO Original Series of Programs, and with some shows from the Star World library too. There is an impressive list Shows and TVs on offer under the Premium service.
Hotstar’s Free Service to continue:
However, this is not to confuse that all of Hotstar is going pay. No, the service, which has been downloaded more than 55 million times in the 14 months after it was launched, will continue to remain free for everything else – all the TV shows, films, live events, entertainment events and also the programs that Hotstar produces with top film stars and the popular RJ Malishka, will remain free, for the end user, but will continue to remain ad-supported. In fact, the website Hotstar.com clearly specifies that “Everything available free on Hotstar, will continue to remain so.”
Game Of Thrones begins ‘at 7.30 am, 25 April’ on Hotstar:
To get back to the premium service. Game of Thrones to come on Hotstar ‘Minutes After America’ probably means that while Star World Premiere HD will broadcast Game Of Thrones SE06E01 on April 26 (as announced in its promos), Hotstar will put up SE06E01 of Game of Thrones for the crazy fans of the most pirated show in India just a little bit after the show airs in the US, so, one day before it airs on Star World Premiere HD, Game of Thrones fans will be able to watch it on Hotstar. While the website has not yet announced the time it will become available from, in the comments section on Hotstar.com, a user has mentioned that Game Of Thrones will be available from 7.30 am on Monday ie 25 April.
If you go by the list of TV shows and Movies that are going to be offered under the premium service of Hotstar.com, the pricing is quite low. It has been priced at Rs 199 per month, and it begins with a one-month free trial offer. Of course, like Netflix, you have to first enter your credit card details (debit card as a mode of payment not available yet, but will probably follow soon). But the subscription is on a no-obligation-cancel-any-time-you-want basis. The offer is open only in India, says the website, and the premium service will soon include “Live sports and shows from the Star Network, same time as on TV”.
‘Exclusive destination for HBO content in India’
It will be recalled that in early December last year, Star India had announced it had partnered HBO for exclusive programming content from the popular HBO Original productions to take it to a wider audience via both, the Hotstar digital platform and the English channels on the Star India network.
Uday Shankar, then CEO and now chairman and CEO of Star India, had said, ”Star is delighted to partner with HBO to bring world class HBO Originals programming for Indian viewers. Star will become the exclusive destination for screening HBO content in India – once again resetting the benchmark for quality and depth of content offering for its viewers. Fans will be able to watch their favourite HBO Original programs on hotstar on the same day as the telecast in the United States. Viewers will also be able to see the HBO Original programming on Star’s English channels.”
Jonathan Spink, HBO Asia CEO, had said, ”HBO is delighted to enter this new chapter in India with Star. Through the first release of our shows on Hotstar, Indian Audiences will now have unprecedented flexibility in how they consume HBO’s much loved premium programming.”
While promos cueing the forthcoming broadcast of Season 6 of the extremely popular Game of Thrones series have been playing for a couple of weeks now, there was no mention of Game of Thrones and when it would become available on Hotstar, so TVNEWS4U.COM decided to check out the Hotstar.com website, and there was the announcement. It is really surprising how the biggest show in the world being available nearly live, is a news that is not yet announced. But this will be a very welcome piece of news for fans of Game Of Thrones. And there is not just Game of Thrones which is being offered, but a lot of really good shows.
Low premium price point will drive subscriptions:
The price point also is good. There are many who say that Indians like everything for free, but the savvy, aspirational, knowledgeable crowd of younger Indians is a very choosy one, and it should pay for something like Game of Thrones. With a price point of a minimum of Rs 500 per month for Netflix, which is only a paid service, Hotstar providing the biggest TV shows, led by Game of Thrones, for only Rs 199 per month, is good news for youngsters, who will not have to watch the show through pirate websites. Of course, this too-low pricing obviously seems to be a plan to get people to sign up, and to get them hooked. Price increases will probably come later, but the low pricing seems to be an attempt to get mass signing up from Hotstar users.
Hotstar has more than 55 million downloads so far, and it can cross promote the premium service to all its users of the free service, which has extremely strong content from all Star Network channels and also original shows and big live entertainment events and sports properties. The IPL is being watched on Hotstar, which had shared earlier that it hopes to get a 100 million viewers watching the cricket series this year, and that is a large captive audience to cross promote the new premium service.
Also, by keeping the content off the internet browsers, Hotstar has also assured rights owners of complete protection of their IPR from piracy, and this is a good step in the right direction.
Top TV Shows and Movies in the Premium Service:
There is a long list of popular Premium TV Shows on Hotstar, and the list is led by Game of Thrones (Drama), along with several others. These are: Silicon Valley (Comedy), Veep (Comedy), Girls (Comedy), The Newsroom (Drama), Vinyl (Drama), The Pacific (Action), Banshee (Action), Baskets (Comedy), Baskets (Comedy), Modern Family (Comedy), Curb Your Enthusiasm (Comedy), The Comeback (Comedy), Rome (Drama), Strike Back (Action), The Leftovers (Drama), American Crime Story (Drama), The Wire (Drama), True Blood (Drama), Hello Ladies (Comedy), Generation Kill (Action), True Detective (Crime), Empire (Drama), The Jinx: The Life and Death of Robert Durst (Documentary), How To Make It In America (Comedy), Olive Kitteridge (Drama), Show Me A Hero (Drama), The Brink (Comedy) and Angels In America (Drama).
Of these, except Empire, American Crime Story, Baskets and Modern Family which are from the Star World Library, all other shows are HBO Originals.
Hollywood Movies in Hotstar’s Premium Service:
The list of Hollywood movies under the Premium service is also long and interesting. These films, covering the genres of Drama, Action, Comedy, Romance and Family, include many multi-part blockbuster franchises. Popular titles include Kingsman: The Secret Service; Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb; The Maze Runner; Dawn of the Planet of the Apes; The Fault in Our Stars; The Grand Budapest Hotel; Wild; X-Men: Days of Future Past; Taken 3; Exodus: Gods and Kings; Rio 2; The Other Woman; The Book of Life; A Good Day to Die Hard; Diary of a Whimpy Kid: Dog Days; Epic; Prometheus; The Three Stooges; The Watch; Ice Age: Continental Drift; The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel; The Descendants; Water For Elephants; We Bought A Zoo; Win Win; X-Men: First Class; The Sitter; Rio; 127 Hours; Diary Of A Wimpy Kid; The A-Team; Crazy Heart; (500) Days of Summer; Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian; X-Men Origins: Wolverine; Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs; The Secret Life of Bees; The X-Files: I Want to Believe; 27 Dresses; Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears A Who; Hitman; Live Free or Die Hard; The Simpsons Movie; Little Miss Sunshine; The Devil Wears Prada; Ice Age: The Meltdown; Walk The Line; Sideways; The Day After Tomorrow; Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World; X-Men United; The Transporter; Independence Day; One Fine Day; That Thing You Do!; Romeo + Juliet; Braveheart; Die Hard: With A Vengeance; The Normal Heart; Speed; True Lies; My Cousin Vinny; Home Alone 2: Lost In New York; Die Hard 2; Home Alone; Predator 2; Die Hard; Chariots Of Fire; Alien; Damien – Omen II; Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid and Cleopatra.
How well the premium service works for Hotstar will be a matter of time. One be sure that the Game of Thrones fans will celebrate. At the same time, they have been used to watching the past seasons through torrent websites, which is ironic considering it is a show about good fighting bad and right and wrong. One will wait for the Hotstar campaign to see what kind of appeal it makes to these young Indians so that they switch from torrents to the legitimate stream in HD on Hotstar. Of course, the fact that it will be available ‘Minutes after America’ and Unspoiled, or without ads, might well mean no campaign required, such is the pull of Game of Thrones!
How financially well Digital content platforms and OTT roll out in India might well hinge on how well the premium service of Hotstar takes off commercially.
