DISNEY + HOTSTAR

INFORMATION SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT

Submitted By: Submitted To:

Harsh Chodvadia M009 Prof. Pathik Shah
Abhishek Bishnoi K207
Anand Gupta K212
Ram Gupta K213
Raj M Kothari K222
Sr. No. Particulars Page No.

1 About Company
 Company Overview 2
 Customers and Suppliers 4
 Competitors 5
 Value Position of Company 6
 Revenue model 7

2 Information Technology tools

 TPS of company 9
 Ordering Methods 9
 Payment Process/Methods 9
 Main Inputs from TPS 10
3 Decisions to be made by the Executives and the 11
Owner

4 Key Business Processes

 Customer Facing Business Processes 13
 Supplier Facing Business Processes 15
5 References 17

Table of Contents

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 COMPANY OVERVIEW
Disney+ Hotstar is an online video streaming platform owned by Novi Digital Entertainment
Private Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Star India Private Limited. Disney+ Hotstar
currently offers over 100,000 hours of TV content and movies across 9 languages, and every
major sport covered live. Highly evolved video streaming technology and a high attention to
quality of experience across devices and platforms, make Disney+ Hotstar the most complete
video destination for Over The Top (OTT) video consumers.

HISTORY TIMELINE

 In 2015: - Star India officially launched Hotstar in February 2015 after fifteen months of
development, coinciding with the upcoming 2015 Indian Premier League . The ad-
supported service initially featured a library of over 35,000 hours of content in 7 regional
languages, as well as live streaming coverage of sports such as cricket (deferred live),
football, and kabaddi. He estimated that by 2020, the service could account for nearly a
quarter of Star's annual revenue.
 In 2016: - In April 2016, Hotstar launched a subscription tier primarily oriented towards
international content and the possibility of premium sports content. While international
services such as Prime Video and Netflix have seen some growth in the Indian market,
Hotstar has remained the dominant streaming service.
 In 2017: - By July 2017, Hotstar's apps had reached 300 million downloads, and it was
reported as being the top video streaming app in the country.
 In 2018: - In May 2018, it was reported that the service had 75–100 million active users
per-month. In September 2018, Hotstar CEO Ajit Mohan left to become the vice-
president and managing director of Facebook India.

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  In 2019: - In March 2019, ahead of the 2019 Indian Premier League, Hotstar migrated
existing subscribers of its All Annual Sports plan to a new entry-level plan known as
Hotstar VIP.
 In 2020: - On 29 June 2020, Hotstar launched a new venture, Disney+ Hotstar Multiplex.
Under this new venture, Hotstar is offering a Friday release of new Bollywood movies
due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Starting with Dil Bechara on 24 July 2020, followed by
The Big Bull, Lootcase, Khuda Haafiz, Laxmmi Bomb, Bhuj: The Pride of India, Sadak
2 etc.

Management Team-

 Chief Executive Officer (CEO):- In September 2018, Hotstar CEO Ajit

Mohan left to become the vice-president and managing director of Facebook
India. Now Sunil Rayan, is the president and head of Disney+ Hotstar India.

 Chief Operation Officer (COO):- Gaurav Gandhi is Chief Operating Officer of

hotstar.

 Chief Financial Officer (CFO):- Dimple Aswani is the Sr.Vice President &
Business Finance Head of Hotstar & ESPN Cricinfo and she Experienced
Sr.Vice President Financial Planning with a demonstrated history of working in
the broadcast media industry.

 Chief Marketing Officer (CMO):- Sidharth Shakdher is Chief Marketing Officer

of Hotstar and Sidharth leads Marketing, Consumer Growth & Engagement for
Hotstar. 

 Chief Technology Officer (CTO):- Akash Saxena is Technology Head of Hotstar.

Locations-

Hotstar is headquartered in Mumbai, India and has 5 office locations across 2 countries: -

India- Mumbai, Bengaluru, Gurugram, Mumbai

China

Hotstar is available in: -

 Canada

 United Kingdom

 United States

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MISSION STATEMENT
Our ambition is to revolutionize internet entertainment and become the largest personalized
over-the-top video service in the world. We are building small teams of really bright people to
deliver amazing results. In this team, you will be surrounded by world class leaders, colleagues
who are highly passionate about the work they own, who think differently and are committed to
breaking frontiers on excellence and innovation across all functions.

ITS MAIN BUSINESS

 Hotstar operates an online video streaming platform. The Company offers drama,
movies, and coverage of every major global sporting event. In addition, it enables brands
to offer mini-games and polls to engage viewers at scale during a live game.

 Disney+ Hotstar currently offers over 100,000 hours of TV content and movies across 9
languages, and every major sport covered live. Highly evolved video streaming
technology and a high attention to quality of experience across devices and platforms,
make Disney+ Hotstar the most complete video destination for Over The Top (OTT)
video consumers.

CUSTOMERS & SUPPLIERS

Disney+ Hotstar is partnered including -
 Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, National Geographic, Showtime, HBO Originals and Disney+
originals.
1. The 2016 launch of the LTE-only wireless carrier Jio spurred the growth of mobile
broadband in India, and was credited in turn for having bolstered the growth of streaming
video in the country.
2. Hotstar partnered with a large number of Indian filmmakers to produce series for the
brand.
3. In December 2015, Hotstar gained domestic streaming rights to current and past HBO
original series, as part of Star's larger deal with the network. It reached a similar deal with
Showtime in July 2017.
4. Hotstar launched a subscription tier primarily oriented towards International Content and
the possibility of Premium sports content.
5. In October 2018, Hotstar partnered with HOOQ to offer its content on its premium
service, including rights to films and series from its co-owners Sony Pictures and Warner
Bros., as well as its other content partners. The partnership between Hotstar and HOOQ
ended in 2020 when the latter shut down due to bankruptcy.

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 Fig: Hotstar Channels

6. It is owned by which is already an established brand in the field of entertainment and

news broadcasting with satellite channels like Star Plus, Star Movies, Star World etc.
7. In sports it covers nearly every kind of event. And has won the deal with many events to
stream their events live. It has bought many popular series like GOT, Walking Dead,
Homeland, City of Dreams, etc.

Fig: Hotstar-VIP (Paid Subscription)

CONSUMERS
Large Consumer Base: There is the large consumer base of this Online Service, in India as well
as abroad. People can access hotstar through mobile or tablet application by downloading the app
from Google Play store or Apple App Store or it can be also accessed through
website(www.hotstar.com).
Contents:
 Hotstar provides the most recent and popular content available. It has content in 8
different languages with TV shows from 15 different TV channels from India and around
the world.

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  Hotstar is not only providing the popular shows and movies from different channels it
also generates original content to keep the engagement of the viewers.
 Hotstar original shows like On Air with AIB, Hotstar Specials, One Tip One Hand has
been the huge success.
 Hotstar has been broadcasting sports events (ODIs, IPL, HPL, etc.) and many other
events which has increased their profit many folds. The highest Realtime viewers were
recorded approx. 23.9 mn in ICC WC 2019.

Competition –
 Netflix - Netflix, Inc. is an American Technology and Media Service
Provider and Production Company headquartered in California. The company's primary
business is its subscription-based streaming service which offers online streaming of a
library of films and television series, including those produced in-house.
 Amazon Prime Video - Amazon Prime Video, is an American Internet video on demand
service that is developed, owned, and operated by Amazon. It offers television shows and
films for rent or purchase and Prime Video, a selection of Amazon Studios original
content and licensed acquisitions included in the Amazon's Prime subscription.
 Jio TV - It is online or app-based service which enables Jio customers to view their
favorite TV channels & programmes on smartphones and tablets.
 Voot - Voot is an Indian subscription video on demand (SVOD) service. Launched in
March 2016, it forms the online arm of Viacom 18. Voot has content from Colors TV,
MTV India, Nickelodeon India and other Viacom 18 owned television channels. It also
hosts many Bollywood films for streaming. It has produced several 'Voot Original' shows
for streaming as well.
 Sony Liv - Sony Liv (marketed as SONY LIV) is an Indian general entertainment, video
on demand service that is owned by Sony Pictures Networks India Pvt. Ltd., based in
Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. The network's other channels include: Sony TV, Sony
SAB, Sony Ten, Sony Max, Sony Max 2, Sony Six, Sony Pix, and Sony Yay (formerly
Animax Asia). It has access to 18 years of content from channels that are part of the Sony
Entertainment Network.

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 Fig:
Popularity of Hotstar comparing among others.

VALUE PROPOSITION
 For those unwilling to pay, Hotstar offers a vast library of ad-driven Hollywood and
Bollywood movies, and TV shows for free.
 A large number of people come on the back of the free proposition, and over time, with
the stickiness to the platform.
 An Indian Company gives a sense on patriotism to customers.
 While its subscription model looks to target the offerings of rivals like Netflix, its free
ad-driven offering challenging two other global giants.
 Cheaper than their counterparts.
 Live streaming of events like YouTube.
 Streaming available in 8 languages.
 Streaming rights of major sporting events like F1 and IPL.

REVENUE MODEL
OTT platforms can generate revenue through subscriptions or advertisements or a mix of both.

 The Free model - YouTube makes revenue just on the advertisements and doesn't
charge the user
 The Paid/Subscription model - Netflix makes revenue just from the subscriptions
and nothing else. This means ‘Zero ads’. Recently YouTube red was launched which is
a subscription-based model.

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  The freemium model - Hotstar is a mix of the above two models. Users have a lot
of free content to browse and if they like the premium offering, they subscribe.

 Hotstar’s revenue comes from two models — AVOD (or Advertisement Video on
Demand) which comprises of free users, and SVOD (or Subscription Video on Demand)
which comprises of paying subscribers. As Hotstar scaled, moving people across the
funnel from freemium viewers to paid subscribers became increasingly important.

 Hotstar, unlike other platforms don’t put ads on their platform from top tech giants led ad
agencies like Google, Yahoo, etc.
 They have set up their own ad management cell in which like a TV advertiser, the
advertiser must contact them directly to place the ads. This reduces the commission given
to Google Ads ranging between 5 to 15% per ad.
 Secondly, they have adopted innovative ideas like if the consumer watches the full ad
then itself, the advertiser pays for the ad placed on the platform benefiting all in the
ecosystem ranging from Star India, Advertisers and consumers.

Hotstar, reported a revenue of over eleven billion Indian rupees for financial year 2019.

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Transaction processing system (TPS) for Hotstar
OTT platform accept payments through only electronic medium only

Ordering Method
 Select the plan you want to choose, there are two plans available hotstar VIP which costs
399 per annum and hotstar premium which costs monthly 299 and 1499 per annum.
 Register through your mail ID or mobile number, enter the OTP you receive on your
registered mobile number
 Enter your personnel details name, age gender
 Next step is choosing the payment method using credit card, debit card, UPI, paytm,
netbanking
 After confirmation of payment your account gets active and you avail services according
to your plan

Organization

Request
Service processing

Request for service OTT

Customer
platform(website)

Payment Methods/ Processes

All payments are made through online mode only
 Paytm
 Credit card
 Debit card
 Netbanking
 UPI

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Main Inputs from TPS
Operational managers need systems that keep track of the elementary activities and
transactions of the organization, such as sales, receipts, cash deposits, payroll, credit
decisions, and the flow of money in the office. Transaction processing systems (TPS)
provide this kind of information. Transaction processing systems are often so central to a
business that TPS failure for a few hours can lead to a firm’s demise and perhaps that of
other firms linked to it.
Integral part of the Firm: Hotstar’s daily routine transactions-necessary to conduct
business, such as sales order entry, DBMS, Payroll, Employee record keeping, and
customer’s record maintaining.
 Employee Payrolls: A payroll system keeps track of money paid to employees. An
employee time sheet with the employee’s name, social security number, and number of
hours worked per week represents a single transaction for this system. Once this
transaction is input into the system, it updates the system’s master file. This master file
lets the managers get an insight of the company’s employee condition.
 Manage Internal Operations: Supplies data to the company’s general ledger system,
which is responsible for maintaining records of the firm’s income and expenses and for
producing reports such as income statements and balance sheets. It also supplies
employee payment history data for insurance, pension, and other benefits. This data helps
the company to notice the value of their firm and where is the company going and helps
in forecasting.
 Customer’s Demand: The primary use is to get to know customer’s demand. Their most
liked and subscribed plan. And what else can Hotstar change in the packages/ Plans so
that people continue to use it.
 Comparison: This can also be used to know about different rival OTT platforms and
compare its overall situation. Many times, companies do try to collaborate to get better
place in the market.

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Decisions made by the Executives (Senior Management) and
Owners in Hotstar
The owners and executives are super senior management. They make decisions on non-routine
processes and activities which require judgment, evaluation and insight. Proper understanding of
the issue is required before addressing it as these issues are critical to the organization. The
information required for these issues to be discussed and solved is outside information as well as
internal information which includes MIS and DSS reports.
The owners take different decisions which are critical for the growth and survival of the
company.
Star India officially launched Hotstar in 11 February 2015 after fifteen months of development,
coinciding with the upcoming 2015 Indian Premier League (for which Star had recently acquired
the streaming rights). This decision is taken by the owners and senior management.
In April 2016, Hotstar launched a subscription tier primarily oriented towards international
content and the possibility of premium sports content. The service launched alongside a new deal
to carry HBO content uncut on the platform, with its introduction coinciding with the season
6 premiere of Game of Thrones. Senior management is highly involved in this type on decision
making.
In September 2018, Hotstar CEO Ajit Mohan left to become the vice-president and managing
director of Facebook India.[13] That month, it was reported that the service had begun to
restructure its leadership to have separate executives for its ad-supported and premium services,
and, aided by new funding from Star US Holdings, planned to increase its production of
premium original content to better-compete with Amazon and Netflix. These decisions of
restructuring the organizational structure is taken care predominantly by the major owners with
the help of Senior management.
On 4 January 2019, Star discontinued their international linear pay television channels in the US
(such as StarPlus), pivoting its focus in the region to Hotstar. This kind of strategic changes is
done by the vision and goals made by the senior management agter prolonged discussion.
In March 2019, ahead of the 2019 Indian Premier League, Hotstar migrated existing subscribers
of its All Annual Sports plan to a new entry-level plan known as Hotstar VIP. Intended as an
introductory option, it includes access to sports content (including the IPL, 2019 Cricket World
Cup, and English Premier League football), early access to serials before their television
broadcast, access to content from the new Hotstar Specials banner of content, and can be paid
for using cash. Chief product officer Varun Narang described the offering as "a value proposition
built with the Indian audience at the heart of it". Thus, this is evidently clear that these decisions
are made with the active involvement of senior management.
Star, and in turn Hotstar, were acquired by The Walt Disney Company in 2019, as part of
its acquisition of their US parent company 21st Century Fox. The major Shareholders are
responsible for such kind of M&A.

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During a February 2020 earnings call, Disney announced that its recently launched international
streaming brand Disney+ and its original programming would be integrated into Hotstar as part
of a re-launch on 29 March 2020. These decisions are taken by Senior management and Major
Shareholders of both the Companies.
Hotstar began to soft launch the expanded service for some users in March. On 20 March 2020,
in recognition of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated delay of the IPL season, Disney
announced that it had postponed the launch to 3 April. Again, Senior Management take this call
in accordance with the changing situations.
In June 2020, Hotstar named Sunil Rayan, formerly of Google, as the new president of Hotstar.
These changes in management is done collectively upon agreement by the major shareholders
with little involvement of senior management.
Firms also have Business Intelligence Systems that focus on delivering information to support
management decision making. Business intelligence is a contemporary term for data and
software tools for organizing, analyzing, and providing access to data to help managers and other
enterprise users make more informed decisions.
Business intelligence addresses the decision-making needs of all levels of management. The
basic transaction data from TPS are compressed and usually presented in reports that are
produced on a regular schedule. Management Information System (MIS), Decision-support
systems (DSS), Executive support systems (ESS) are some of the tools that Hotstar uses to focus
on problems that are unique and rapidly changing, for which the procedure for arriving at a
solution may not be fully predefined in advance.

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Business Process
A business process is a collection of linked tasks which find their end in the delivery of a service
or product to a client.   A business process has also been defined as a set of activities and tasks
that, once completed, will accomplish an organizational goal.  The process must involve clearly
defined inputs and a single output. These inputs are made up of all of the factors which
contribute (either directly or indirectly) to the added value of a service or product. These factors
can be categorized into management processes, operational processes and supporting business
processes

Customer Facing Business Process

Hotstar today offers customers access to convenient, unlimited, commercial-free streaming of
TV shows and movies right from their devices. Using a subscription-based model, customers
have access to unlimited content for a ₹299 monthly fee.  Hotstar is also a content creator,
offering exclusive Hotstar original TV series (such as Hostages, Special Ops, The Office), solely
on their online platform.  These series are of high production value helps Hotstar differentiate
itself from competitors. Hotstar has been able to outpace their competitors such as Netflix, Hulu,
Amazon, in number of users, which has reached over 69 million, as they have been able to
convert, sustain and grow their original base of traditional consumers by amassing a collection of
online content that far outweighs competitors.  Their key partners are content providers:
television networks and movie studios.  For users, the convenience aspect is vital as they want to
stream any show on their personal device commercial-free, with full navigational control of their
viewing experience.  Further, Hotstar provides a personalized experience for each user by

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 creating a viewership profile and recommending curated content on the home page based on
previously watched shows.

Hotstar’s Customer Segments

 The Hotstar platform is designed to offer a vast collection of different types of genres for
subscribers to select from.
 Everyone, who is interested in watching movies, TV shows and documentaries – and
honestly who isn’t?
 Although Hotstar offers content for children and adults alike, Hotstar aims to promote
Family-friendly, educational and entertaining content to help capture the better interests of
families.

Hotstar’s Customer Relationships

1. Self-Setup Made Easy

 Hotstar platform was originally designed to ensure that it is simple and easy to use.
 Developers of the Website ensured to associate elements and themes that serves and
promotes friendliness and provides a self-setup.
2. Exceptional Customer Experience
 Hotstar provides customer services through means of the website portal, email inquiries
and users have the option to reach a representative directly, by telephone and live chat.
3. Online Live Chat Services
 Users have the option to opt-in to a live chat session with a Hotstar representative.
 Users can directly chat with a Hotstar representative to ask questions and support related
inquiries.
 Request for discounts and other special promotional deals that they may qualify or offer
such user or subscriber.
4. Social Media
 Channeling major advertisements, deals, and other promotional deals through Social
media channels and other relative platforms to help gain the high attraction of customer and new
sign up users conversions.
 Social media is also used to inform and update individuals that operate or are familiar
with the Hotstar platform. Such Platforms may include Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.
5. Hotstar Gift Cards
 Part of the subscription plan, all users will be geared to receive special promotional
discounts and other gift cards to avail.

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Supplier Facing Business Process
Content providers and creators make up the primary suppliers to the online video streaming
industry. These suppliers are under no obligation to create licensing agreements with Hotstar, or
its competitors. At back end side, Hotstar uses the architecture having the AWS services.
Amazon Route 53 Amazon CloudFront and Amazon S3 are services for the Hotstar streaming
video.
Amazon Route 53
The name itself suggests that at the port no 53, the AWS provides the DNS services to its
applications. It easily and effectively connects the EC2 instances or Amazon S3 bucket, and it
also provides the routing information to the outer side of the AWS infrastructure.
This makes AWS more user friendly.

Amazon CloudFront
Low latency and High transfer speed of 5700 Gbps for Hotstar is somehow possible through
cloudfront as it provides Content Delivery Network (CDN) services. Any user can directly use
the cloud front who is familiar with other services of AWS. It is already included with AWS
subscription for the user.

Amazon S3
Storing the data and fetching them as per the need is the advantage of the AWS services.
To store, retrieve or analyze, millions of data from anywhere at anytime can be possible with the
AWS S3. As at the 5700 Gbps bandwidth the hotstar is providing the live match to the millions
of India public, who are crazy for match and this has already been cracked the record to provide
the live video streaming.

Another major supplier and enabler of Hotstar’s service offering is network and broadband
providers. Hotstar, Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Instant Video, and the other online streaming-
video providers all require a broadband connection. Presumably, cable operators (such as Jio
Giga Fibre) looking for ways to charge more for broadband service.

Key partners

1. Content/IP owners (studios / distributors): shows and movies that Hotstar acquires or

licenses from 3rd parties
2. Internet Service Providers (ISPs): are essential to the delivery of the content in “real-
time” to the end customer (and simultaneously to millions worldwide in case of new
launches) via Hotstar Open Connect standard.

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 3. Amazon Web Services (AWS): Almost all of Hotstar IT is hosted on AWS (from a
functionality perspective but not from a content perspective). They also use Amazon’s
Content Delivery Networks (CDNs)
4. Filmmaker “guilds” and individuals: Directors, actors, writers and their guilds/unions
are some of the most powerful players in the film industry. This also pertains to powerful
individuals.
5. Cinemas, Theatres: With cinemas shut the release of films on digital platforms is an
opportunity to grow the market and for more films to be made and released.
6. Prizes and film festivals: Strong promoters and influences in the industry can help get
the word out, e.g. Film Festival (Star Awards) etc.
7. Influencers: Magazines, TV shows and others covering the film industry can give free
promotion (or criticism)
8. IP holders: Disney and others who can license their IP to Hotstar for their own content
creation
9. Regulators: Policies of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), especially
on the topic of net neutrality can have a crucial influence on Hostar.
10. Investors: A lot of the content is funded by external money, in particular bond issuance
to investors. Despite its huge user base Hostar still needs the faith (and funds) of investors.
11. Smart TVs: Built alliances with Smart TV companies like MI and Sony for new
emerging markets and several other aspects.
12. Smart Mobile Phones: Hotstar recently partnered with Microsoft, Micromax, Karbonn,
etc to further integrate its streaming service with smartphones. In exchange users will
benefit from Hotstar’s original shows and special bonus content.

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 References
https://www.appian.com/bpm/definition-of-a-business-process/

https://digital.hbs.edu/platform-rctom/submission/netflix-behind-the-scenes/

https://bstrategyhub.com/netflix-business-model-how-does-netflix-make-money/

https://sgmanetflix.weebly.com/buyer-and-supplier-power.html

https://shreeyashah.blogspot.com/2018/08/hotstar-with-amazon-web-services-
for.html#:~:text=At%20back%20end%20side%2C%20hotstar,Amazon%20S3%20for%20the
%20Hotstar.

https://innovationtactics.com/netflix-business-model-canvas/

https://tech.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/internet/hotstar-sees-blended-revenues-as-
winning-strategy/65449426
https://digital.hbs.edu/platform-rctom/submission/netflix-behind-the-scenes/
https://www.techcircle.in/2018/08/17/why-hotstar-thinks-its-revenue-model-can-keep-video-
streaming-rivals-at-bay/

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