While Disney is currently in the process of merging its Star India business with Reliance, it has made a major update to its Disney+ Hotstar streaming service this week with the launch of Version 2.0.

This new version has mainly been updated to introduce new features for its advertising business, just in time for the upcoming ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 cricket event. This new version will allow advertisers across all businesses and sizes an accessible experience in five languages – English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, and Kannada.

Dhruv Dhawan, who is the head of ads at Disney+ Hotstar India, said in a statement:

“We are committed to empowering our advertisers and agency partners with innovative ad solutions. Our enhanced self-serve platform is a testament to this commitment, enabling advertisers of all sizes to capitalize on the significant opportunities presented by the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024. With the inclusion of our Entertainment offerings, advertisers can extend their engagement beyond the marquee tournament, ensuring sustained audience connection. We eagerly anticipate the widespread adoption of our self-serve platform by advertisers and agency partners alike.”

This new self-serve platform will offer advertisters end-to-end automation and a streamlined campaign setup process, ensuring advertisers can launch their campaigns in less than three hours. The platform offers advertisers the optoin of creating Midrolls and Pre-rolls ads along with over 1000+ targeting options available for advertisers to target their relevant target audience.

To kick off the new version of Hotstar, Disney has introduced special incentives for first-time advertisers.

Roger’s Take: While this new version doesn’t offer much at face value for Disney+ Hotstar users, in the long run, an improved ad-supported system will make the platform more stable in the long run, especially as it’s expected that Disney+ Hotstar will eventually merge with Reliance’s JioCinema once the merger is complete. Disney has found that subscription-based services in India don’t perform as well as free platforms and look to be trying to take more advantage of advertising in the region.

What do you think of the launch of Disney+ Hotstar V2? Let me know on social media!

Roger Palmer

Roger has been a Disney fan since he was a kid and this interest has grown over the years. He has visited Disney Parks around the globe and has a vast collection of Disney movies and collectibles. He is the owner of What's On Disney Plus & DisKingdom. Email: Roger@WhatsOnDisneyPlus.com Twitter: Twitter.com/RogPalmerUK Facebook: Facebook.com/rogpalmeruk

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