Team-BHP - What on earth is Hotstar doing? Is the subscription worth it anymore

Hotstar was subscribed initially as a free service with Airtel. We continue to use as paid service to watch F1 and other contents. Viewing OTT is also reduced nowadays due to work commitments and as a nuclear family 3 OTT platform is a overkill. So we already decided to give up Hotstar once the subscription period ends.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GTO (Post 5525046)

Are you guys continuing with your Hotstar subscription? Without HBO & F1, I see no reason to. Hotstar is weakening its base at a time when other players are coming out with top-class content.

Another issue, at least in my Samsung TV, poor UX and more importantly no 5.1 or Atmos audio support!

It only makes do with only 2 channel audio, welcome to 1990s guys.

Sure I can get a FireTV stick to go around it, but should I buy it just for Hotstar? Not a chance.

Shows their lack of proper software development team, which is shocking to say the least, even satellite TV channels got Dolby audio more than a decade ago, I'am pretty sure Samsung is still a major TV brand in India to warrant a good quality app experience for their TV's OS. (Tizen)

Netflix is lightyears ahead in this department.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GTO (Post 5525046)

Hotstar is weakening its base at a time when other players are coming out with top-class content.

Agree; HotStar has lost their main, second and third best USP. They seem to want to just show regurgitated movies now (post their theatre run).

The amount of diversification / off-shoots of TV networks has gotten insane; they are dime a dozen, and new shows seem to be scattered across them. We've come to a point where we need a subscription of all these platforms to really enjoy a variety of content.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ninjatalli (Post 5525049)

On a side note, I have already done the same for Netflix too. Don't see a reason to pay the premium; their choice of new content (across shows & movies) is quite all over the place these days.

Very strongly disagree. Netflix has churned out some of the best shows I've watched:

The Crown
House of Cards
Stranger Things (for wife)
Queen's Gambit
Mindhunter
13 Reasons Why (just the first season for us)
Money Heist
Fauda

I had subscribed Hotstar for IPL, F1 and Marvel/Disney content. My son is through with all the Marvel movies and my daughter had her fill of Disney princess movies. Since there is no IPL and F1, I am not keen to continuing the subscription when it expires in July. Issue is though, all the international cricket in India will be broadcast on Hotstar till 2027.

Regards

I am extremely happy that Hotstar moved away from HBO (or vice versa). As someone else has commented above, nothing much going in NetFlix too. I have decided to dedicate all the time to self improvement and learning. Succession can stream elsewhere for all I care. Goodbye OTT platforms.

Hotstar is total crap now, but I have to keep it for my kid and some series' (House of Dragons) which I would have happily got from utorrent 10 years back :D

It's a shame that I used to watch all time favourites like Terminator 2, Predator, Independence Day on Star movies at cheap cable prices back in the day. They are simply not there on Hotstar.

Hotstar comes bundled in my Jio broadband plan - so, no extra money paid in subscription fees.

We still repeatedly keep on watching Avengers Infinity war and Endgame ever few months (it's kind of a stress buster); and it still has Grey's Anatomy (which is still churning out new episodes - though for how long is a question - since many of the old characters are leaving the show continuously)

There are some very good insights into what happened this The Ken article. (different from the one shared above)

Quote:

Originally Posted by libranof1987 (Post 5525373)

Netflix has churned out some of the best shows I've watched:

The Crown
House of Cards
Stranger Things (for wife)
Queen's Gambit
Mindhunter
13 Reasons Why (just the first season for us)
Money Heist
Fauda

Quite true. Loved some of the ones in your list and there are more that we enjoyed, but none of those (that we enjoyed/liked) have come in last 1+ years. Also the follow-up/latest seasons of good shows are pretty mundane as compared to the first one (e.g. Stranger Things, 13 Reasons). It's kind of like the Marvel universe - 2 years ago, every movie had to be watched on the first day itself. Now, I hardly feel the urge to pay premium ticket rate for new releases and sometimes would even think of waiting for it to come on Hotstar a month or two later.

And this is an individual preference; so of course it comes down to everyone to figure out if/why they want to pay the heavy premium that Netflix charges (as compared to other OTT platforms). For me it comes down to how much time I spend on good content (over reruns) that I enjoy on an OTT and that drives my decision. This year only Prime is holding up with it's regional language movies coverage (plus the shopping side benefits of course).

Cynic hat on, it's practically an OTT cartel nowadays. Find the top 10 watched shows across platforms, then piecemeal them out to half a dozen OTT platforms so people can be squeezed of subscription money.

I have Hotstar and SonyLiv primarily for the football. Considering dropping both now at the end of current football season.

Yes, Hotstar has lost some major content - IPL, F1 and HBO series. But for me it still has relevance as I am a football fan and all the premier league rights are with them still. So won't/can't do away with my Hotstar subscription.

It is interesting to the see there is no other football fan in the people responding till now. It kind of shows the popularity of cricket vs football.

I love F1 but I cannot afford F1 TV and I don't think I can afford it anytime soon. I loved Hotstar because it had F1 and I used to pay for a year upfront till last year. Thinking that I will improve the viewing experience, last December I invested in a 43" TV and a decent 150 Watt soundbar from Samsung only to hear the news that F1 won't be available on Hotstar.

As of now I get Hostar subscription budled with Jio Fiber and if F1 is not coming back I certrainly won't be paying for a subscription anymore.

What I think Star/Disney is doing with Hotstar is pushing a lot of their own Disney content which I strongly believe have gone down in quality by a lot.

One more thing I really wish would happen is if Jio could start a streaming service with all these and bundle it with their Mobile or Fiber subscription.

As of now it is a very sad situation for an F1 fan nonetheless.