Disney+ Hotstar Announces Malaysia Launch Date and New Local Content

Disney, Disney+, The Walt Disney Company

Disney+ Hotstar Announces Malaysia Launch Date and New Local Content

May 4, 2021

Direct to Consumer, Disney streaming, Disney+ Hotstar, Hotstar

Today is May 4th and Disney owns Star Wars, which means, almost all of today’s Disney news is somehow related to Star Wars. The important word there is ‘almost,’ as an important little news nugget came out regarding the continued expansion of Disney’s Direct-To-Consumer division.

Disney+ Hotstar will be launching in the Southeastern Asian country of Malaysia on June 1st. Disney+ Hotstar is Disney’s international version of Disney+ that adds much of the content from Hulu, it also has gained immense popularity around the world, in places like India, by adding regional content from local shows and artists.

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The Malaysian launch will include a number of deals with leading Malaysian studios, such as Skop Productions, Revolution Media Films, Primeworks Studios, WAU Animation, Act 2 Pictures, Les’ Copaque Productions, Red Films, and more.

The service will kickoff with over 800 films and 18,000 episodes of Disney owned series. The bulk of the content will come from Disney, Disney+, Pixar, Marvel, National Geographic, and (of course) Star Wars.

Malaysia is not Disney’s first foray into the Asian streaming market. Last year and earlier this year they launched Disney+ in Singapore, Japan, Indonesia, and India. Future rollouts include South Korea, Taiwan, Philippines, and Thailand.

Disney+ has seen a number of highly successful new shows since it’s launch in November of 2019, including two seasons of The Mandalorian, Marvel’s Wandavision, and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. It has also served as a home for a number of Disney movies that were intended for a theatrical release, but public safety concerns changed those plans, including the live-action Mulan, Disney Pixar’s Soul, Disney Animation’s Raya and the Last Dragon, and the filmed version of the Broadway hit Hamilton.

A large source of Disney+’s subscriber growth has come from overseas, especially India, so the addition of Malaysia will be another rich source of new subscribers.