HBO series such as The Last of Us, House of the Dragon, Game of Thrones, Euphoria, Succession and many others will soon become unavailable on the subscription video-on-demand over-the-top streaming service Disney+Hotstar. The Home Box Office (HBO) programming will only be available for streaming on Disney+Hotstar till March 31. Earlier in February, Hollywood news website Deadline reported that the deal between Disney+Hotstar and HBO would end soon, in line with Disney CEO Bob Iger’s announcement of restructuring and cost-cutting at the company.
The move comes weeks after the Disney CEO announced that the company would cut 7,000 jobs and slash $5.5 billion in costs as part of a larger reorganisation, including $3 billion in content-related costs. Among the popular HBO series that were available on Disney+Hotstar till now are Big Little Lies, True Detective, Insecure, Chernobyl, Silicon Valley, Veep, Sopranos, and Irma Vep. The platform has been streaming HBO content since January 2016.
Disney+Hotstar confirmed the development on Twitter when a user asked why the latest season of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver wasn’t available on the platform yet. “Hi! 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,” said a response from Disney+Hotstar’s user support account Disney+HS_helps.
Apart from the HBO content, Disney+Hotstar also has movies in various Indian languages, as well as television serials and programs aired on Star Plus and other Disney Star TV channels.