From March 31, Disney+ Hotstar won’t be streaming HBO content on its platform, as per The Walt Disney Company’s restructuring plan to make their streaming service more cost-effective and profitable.
In the wake of Robert Iger’s return as Disney’s CEO, after the dismissal of Bob Chapek, a restructuring plan has been announced. Accordingly, large-scale budget cuts amounting to $5.5 billion and 7,000 job losses will be seen in The Walt Disney Company. Disney is completely restructuring its media divisions, merging their film, TV and streaming divisions together to form a new division aptly titled Disney Entertainment.
Also Read: Disney+ outshines Netflix with 11.8M new subscribers in Q1 and strong forecast
The OTT industry had an unprecedented growth during the Covid pandemic. Now, these companies have to face difficult times as global media giants are facing challenging situations due to economic uncertainties. Many large media organizations, including Netflix, Amazon and the major film studios (Universal Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros., Walt Disney Pictures and Columbia Pictures) have decided to prioritize their financial gain. The disastrous state of the U.S. stock market in 2022 has forced companies to rethink their plans of burning money on OTT content and cutting down on their labor force. Consequently, Warner Bros. has decided to halt the launch of its HBO Max India streaming service indefinitely.
