When I went to the Disney Content Showcase APAC 2022 event representing Aksiz, I had a chat with a Disney representative whose name I cannot mention about Disney+ Hotstar in Malaysia and Disney+ – why does Hotstar not offer a good user experience compared to regular Disney+?
He replied, it is true that many users report the same thing. Firstly not all Samsung TVs can use Disney+ Hotstar and the interface is not very user friendly. The main reason why Disney+ and Disney+ Hotstar are separate is that Hotstar focuses on local content where Disney works with studios to include a lot of exclusive content. While Disney+ is content from Disney studios only.
But in Singapore, Japan and some other APAC countries – local content can still be broadcast. Why does this country accept Disney+ and Malaysia Disney+ Hotstar? Disney had actually planned to merge these two platforms into one and align Disney+ as one brand worldwide.
The original plan was that local content would have a dedicated space on Disney+. Like Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar which has its own section, as well as for the content of Malay drama, K-drama, J-drama or even Indonesian. But this plan was disrupted during Covid-19 and until today no one knows what Disney's next plan is.
For now users in Malaysia will be "stuck" with the Hotstar version only. But soon there will be an update like in India which is currently testing a new application with a better interface, fresher, profile support and more user friendly. Just don't know if it will be distributed more widely. Let's wait together.
