Disney+ Hotstar to stream new animation film ‘Strange World’

Disney+ Hotstar will stream Strange World, an animated science-fiction adventure film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios on 23 December. Directed by Don Hall, the film stars the voices of Jake Gyllenhaal, Dennis Quaid, Jaboukie Young-White, Gabrielle Union, and Lucy Liu.

Viewership of international content on over-the-top (OTT) video streaming platforms in India has nearly doubled in 2022 as audiences took to original and dubbed versions of English, Turkish, Spanish and Korean shows and films.

Viewers have become increasingly language agnostic owing to dubbing and subtitling of international shows popular for high-quality storytelling and production, said streaming services firms. Many services also used social media influencers and Bollywood stars to market these shows in India over the past year.

According to media consulting firm Ormax, the most viewed international series this year include House of the Dragon (28.2 million) and Moon Knight (23.4 million) beating last year’s record of 19.3 million by Hawkeye. All three shows are on Disney+Hotstar.

From international content, English language content dominates viewership, with 65% of SVoD (subscription-led video-on-demand) audiences watching it, with or without language support, followed by Korean language content, being viewed by 30% of the SVoD audience base. The SVoD audience in India is today watching an average of 4.6 languages versus the AVoD audience which doesn’t get enough dubbed content and is restricted to an average of 2.3 languages of consumption.

International content is making a strong pull for the consumer’s wallet, aided by the fact that shows and movies are released on the same day and date in India as foreign services and often without edits. Consumers are increasingly becoming language agnostic and have the appetite for content across languages. Movies and shows that previously wouldn’t have entered the Indian borders are now being viewed and loved all over the country. Recommendation algorithms on OTT platforms and outstanding marketing played a crucial role in making foreign language content popular.