Just a few days back, OTT giant Netflix had announced that it was bringing restrictions on password sharing for its subscribers in India. The announcement was made after Netflix’s second quarter earnings report revealed an addition of 5.9 million new subscribers following its password sharing crackdown in many countries.
And now, it looks like Netflix’s rival Indian OTT platform Disney+ Hotstar is following a rather similar strategy in the price-sensitive and tricky Indian OTT market. As per a recent report, Disney+ Hotstar is planning to tighten the noose around account / password sharing amongst its Indian subscribers.
As of now, Disney+ Hotstar premium subscribers in India are able to login from ten different devices, despite the fact that Hotstar’s website mentions that the number of devices that can be logged in is just four. It is being said that until now, Disney+ Hotstar was intentionally overlooking this four-device login policy in order to attract more subscribers, not to irk them, and for a good market share in the Indian OTT market.
However, now, Disney+ Hotstar is ostensibly planning to follow the four-device login policy in a stricter way to encourage its prospective users to subscribe to its streaming service instead of using an existing subscriber’s password to enjoy OTT content. The planned account sharing restrictions will also be purportedly applicable for its cheaper plan with two-device login.
Although Disney+ Hotstar might be thinking in the right direction, the question is: Is it too soon for the OTT giant to implement account sharing restrictions for Indian OTT viewers? We say so because even though Netflix has apparently achieved success after implementing its password sharing restrictions in more than 100 countries across the globe, the Indian OTT market can still be considered as untested waters because the medium to long term outcome of Netflix’s password sharing restrictions is yet to be out.
Having said that, Disney Hotstar’s plan to restrict account sharing for premium subscribers might also have been because the company had previously found out that only around 5% of its premium subscribers logged in from more than four devices. This implies that its account sharing restriction plans won’t affect many people who are using their premium subscription plans. So, perhaps it’s the right thing and the right time to implement it.
With a host of popular streaming platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and renewed competition from the now revamped Jio Cinema OTT platform, Disney+ Hotstar is expected to keep no stone unturned to counter the fierce competition and to continue enjoying its market leader position in the Indian OTT industry.
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