Hotstar rejigs team ahead of Disney+ launch

Walt Disney Company’s OTT platform Hotstar is seeing a slew of organisational changes with the imminent launch of Disney+, three people with knowledge of the company’s functioning said.

Disney+ is the streaming service that the Los Angeles-based media giant is set to launch in the United States and Canada in November. The Over-The-Top service will compete with Netflix and Amazon’s Prime Video, and will be part of a bouquet of streaming platforms Disney has control over, including ESPN and Hulu.

The partnerships with ESPN and Hulu are important in how they affect Hotstar. Since former Hotstar CEO Ajit Mohan left the company last year to head Facebook’s India operations, the company has primarily been managed by its parent Star India and its chairman Uday Shankar.