Novi Digital Entertainment, the parent company of video streaming service Hotstar has reported a net loss of Rs 409 crore for the financial year 2015-16 (FY16), which widened from Rs 77.1 crore in the previous financial year (FY15), according to its filings with the Registrar of Companies. The development was first spotted by Financial Express. Overall revenues for FY16 stood at Rs 185.7 crore, up significantly from Rs 51.8 crore between 2014-15 (FY15). However, the FY15 and FY16 figures cannot be compared with each other since Hotstar commenced its operations only in January 2015. In addition the company posted subscription revenues of Rs 24.1 crore during FY16, while revenue from advertising operations stood at Rs 128.5 crore during the same financial year. The company also invested close to Rs 154 crore for advertising and marketing related purposes. After launch in early 2015, Star India owned Hotstar started offering premium subscriptions for Rs 199 per month that provides access to selection of movies and TV shows, including the new season of Game of Thrones. Hotstar distinguishes paid content with a premium tag. In November 2015, Hotstar started expanding internationally by launching in the US, UK, Canada, South Africa, Germany, Malaysia and Singapore markets among others. Content deals Hotstar recently tied up with Disney India to added content from Disney’s latest movie titles like ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens , The Jungle Book and Moana , Marvel’s Captain America: Civil War. In August last year Relince Jio partnered with Hotstar to ffer premium content…
