Disney Hotstar’s content library will become more sparse as it ends its deal with the king of critically acclaimed shows, HBO. Starting April 1, the American pay television will not be airing its shows on Disney’s South Asian OTT platform.

This comes after Disney CEO Bob Iger announced cost-cutting measures to the measure of $5.5 billion. Exiting their deal with HBO is part of their $3-billion content saving strategy.

The streaming platform confirmed the news on Twitter and said: “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.”

However, HBO shows were a major draw for subscribers of Disney Hotstar. HBO is known to produce some of the most critically acclaimed and popular shows in the world. Shows such as the Sopranos, Game of Thrones and Last of Us are produced and aired on HBO.

After losing IPL, the loss of HBO is thus a major blow to Disney Hostar’s content line-up. Karan Taurani, Senior Vice-President of Elara Capital, said: “The IPL, HBO shows and Disney original movies were the key draws in Disney Hostar’s content library. After the loss of IPL, Disney Hotstar is already set to lose 15 per cent of their total subscribers, according to our estimates. HBO’s exit will put major pressure on subscriber numbers, too. 

Disney Hotstar will have to put more focus on original content in order to bounce back, said Taurani.

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