Disney+ Hotstar to stream third season of ‘City of Dreams’ on 26 May

Disney+ Hotstar will stream the third season of its original City of Dreams on 26 May. The show has been co-produced by Applause Entertainment and stars Atul Kulkarni and Sachin Pilgaonkar, among others.

Disney+ Hotstar reported an 8% drop in subscriber base to 52.9 million in January-March quarter as the media and entertainment conglomerate looks at lower content volume.

Previously, the platform, which is known as Disney+ Hotstar, in India and other Asian countries such as Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia, had seen subscriber count dip by 6% to 57.5 million from 61.3 million in the October-December quarter. This essentially makes for a loss of 8.4 million subscribers over the past six months.

Average monthly revenue per paid subscriber dipped by 20% from $0.74 to $0.59 for Disney+ Hotstar in Q2. The company follows an October to September financial year. Overall, the Walt Disney Co saw its video streaming platform Disney+ lose paid subscribers by 2% to 157.8 million in the March quarter.

In India, Disney Star, the media firm owned by the Walt Disney Co has given up the digital rights to stream the Indian Premier League (IPL). Starting 31 March, Disney Star has also removed 144 HBO originals as the company decided against extending its longstanding content deal with Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent firm of HBO. Media analysts have estimated a 30% loss of subscribers thanks to the change in strategy.

“We are in the process of reviewing the content on our DTC (direct-to-consumer) services to align with the strategic changes in our approach to content curation. As a result, we will be removing certain content from our streaming platforms and currently expect to take an impairment charge of approximately $1.5 billion to $1.8 billion. And going forward, we intend to produce lower volumes of content in alignment with this strategic shift,” Christine McCarthy, senior executive vice-president and chief financial officer had said during an earnings call.