Game of Thrones effect? Hotstar silently increases price in India

Entertainment service Hotstar has silently revised its monthly subscription plan in India. Now, Hotstar monthly subscription plan costs Rs 299. Earlier, Hotstar monthly plan used to cost Rs 199. However, the company has not made any changes to Hotstar annual plan. Hotstar 12-month plan costs Rs 999. The revised plan is already live on Hotstar’s app and website.

Interested Hotstar subscribers also benefit from 3 days trial. Hotstar may have increased the price of its monthly subscription for two possible reasons. Only this week, the final season of Game of Thrones dropped on Hotstar. Given the popularity of Game of Thrones in India, more users are expected to tune in to the platform for the next few weeks. However, HBO’s popular series will supposedly finish in less than 3 months from now. So if you are one of those users who only stream Hotstar for Game of Thrones, subscribing to Hotstar annual subscription may not be ideal for you. In that case, the majority of Game of Thrones users are expected to subscribe to monthly Hotstar plan.

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Additionally, there is a report that all Disney+ content including Star Wars and Marvel will be available in India through Hotstar. Last year, Walt Disney acquired 21st Century Fox in 71$ bn cash and stock deal. As a result, Hotstar, including Star India and Fox Star Studio, comes under Walt Disney. With this move, Hotstar is soon expected to be the largest digital video platform of Walt Disney.

This is likely to include Disney movies, shows, Pixar movies, Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) movies and shows and content. Some of the popular movies that we can soon expect on Hotstar are Little Mermaid, Alladin, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Beauty and the Beast. Pixar movies like Toy Story, Wall-E are also expected. Then, we can expect the entire Star Wars saga and Marvel Cinematic Universe content to drop on Hotstar.

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We can safely assume that Indians would be able to access all of Disney+ content with Hotstar. However, Hotstar is yet to make a formal announcement.