KOLKATA: In the pursuit of conquering new-age entertainment, The Walt Disney Company has kept a sharp eye on the APAC market and is rolling out Disney+ Hotstar in Indonesia on 5 September.

In the last quarter, the media giant launched Disney+ in India via Disney+ Hotstar service. While at the end of the quarter, Disney+ had a paid subscriber base of 57.5 million, Disney+ Hotstar comprised about 15 per cent of it. However, Disney+ has now grown to 60.5 million as of 3 August. Disney+'s overall ARPU this quarter was $4.62 but excluding Disney+ Hotstar it was $5.31. 

Disney+ Hotstar is not going to limit itself to sports and classic Disney+ library in India. While last year Hotstar went into original content, after rebranding, Disney+ Hotstar is chasing a larger audience with direct-to-digital premiers of Bollywood movies. The streaming service, which crossed eight million subscribers within one week of its launch, is currently looking at hundreds of millions of subscribers.

“At Star, higher results reflect lower programming costs, partially offset by lower advertising revenue. Both of these drivers reflect the absence of cricket in the third quarter including a shift in rights costs for the Indian Premier League which we expect to be recognised in future quarters and the absence of costs for the quadrennial ICC World Cup which aired in the prior-year quarter,” The Walt Disney Company senior executive vice president and CFO Christine McCarthy said.