Disney+Hotstar will lose HBO content by the end of this month in the latest blow for the Disney-owned on-demand video streaming company that recently also lost rights for the Indian Premier League. Hotstar also did not renew the streaming rights for Formula 1 in 2023, with that content moving over to F1 TV Pro.
The official Twitter account of Disney+ Hotstar tweeted yesterday, "Starting 31st March, HBO content will be unavailable on Disney+ Hotstar. You can continue enjoying Disney+ Hotstar's vast library of content spanning over 100,000 hours of TV Shows and Movies in 10 languages and coverage of major global sporting events."
The Last of Us, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Game of Thrones, Industry, Watchmen, The Wire, and Veep are just a few of the HBO titles that will no longer be available on Disney+ Hotstar as of March 31, the Indian streamer announced in a tweet.
Ever since the news broke out, several users have been demanding a refund of their subscription fee. Many also asked the platform to "reduce its prices" since several shows will no longer be available.
"Most of the good/great shows on Hotstar are HBO shows! What a loss!" said a user.
"Ah, hbo got greedy. now a seperate sub for hbo content apart from disney content :(. it was too good till it lasted i guess. so now will have to choose from disney or hbo, expensive to keep both," said another person.
A third person said, "HBO content will probably be moved to Prime video. Amazon has partnership with them."
"No IPL, No F1 and now no HBO. Why did we pay for your annual subscription then?" said another user.
HBO and Star India agreed to a partnership in 2015 to make HBO content available on Hotstar. In April 2020, Walt Disney Company purchased 20th Century Studios and it was renamed to Disney+ Hotstar.
