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Disney Plus Hotstar Launches Massive Recruitment Drive in India

Leading Indian streamer Disney Plus Hotstar is hiring more than 250 people in different roles across the company.

The roles include engineers, marketers, consumer growth personnel across client platforms, personalizers of video content, and security, fraud, payments and subscriptions staff.

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Disney Plus has 103.6 million subscribers globally. Approximately a third of these are Disney Plus Hotstar subscribers, the company revealed in an earnings call in May.

The service boasts a potent mix of Bollywood films; commissioned originals including “Aarya,” “Hostages” and “Criminal Justice”; the full bouquet of programming from sister outfit Star network; the Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars and National Geographic range; HBO; and sports.

The shining jewel for Disney Plus Hotstar is the enormously popular Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournament for which, they paid $2.55 billion for rights through 2022. However, the 2021 tournament was suspended midway because of the rapid spread of COVID-19 in India.

“Our commitment to expanding our workforce reflects our confidence in India’s immense growth potential as we seek to create engaging content for the next billion digital viewers,” said Sunil Rayan, president and head, Disney Plus Hotstar. “In these disruptive times, we are keen to create opportunities for talent to thrive in an environment built on the core values of diversity and inclusion. We endeavour to continue transforming the digital entertainment experience by designing innovative business models while embracing complex technical, user and business challenges along the way.”

The company is spreading across the Asia-Pacific region. Disney Plus Hotstar launched in Indonesia in September 2020 and in Malaysia earlier this month. It launched in Singapore as Hotstar in November 2020.

Disney Plus Hotstar will launch in Thailand at the end of June, with a Philippines bow expected later this year.

Numbers in the region could reach 56.5 million and $800 million of revenue by the end of the year, according to new research by Media Partners Asia. However, the consultancy has cut its forecast for Disney Plus Hotstar subscribers in India by year end from an estimated 51 million to a revised 41 million because of the suspension of the IPL.

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