Sunil Rayan to Steer Disney Hotstar India into Future

By Pickle  June 27, 2020

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Disney+ Hotstar India is on a mission to create the country’s largest and most advanced platform for curated content, and Sunil Rayan is just the right person to drive that ambition, Uday Shankar, chairman Disney and Star India and president, Walt Disney Company Asia Pacific, said, welcoming the new colleague.

The Walt Disney Company’s Indian subsidiary Disney+ Hotstar has roped in Sunil Rayan as president and head, of the streaming platform. Prior to this, Sunil Rayan was managing director, Google Cloud for Games.

Based in California, Rayan has worked with Google for over seven years in various roles and verticals. Disney+ Hotstar India is on a mission to create the country’s largest and most advanced platform for curated content, and Sunil Rayan is just the right person to drive that ambition, Uday Shankar, chairman Disney and Star India and president, Walt Disney Company Asia Pacific, said, welcoming the new colleague.

“Five years ago, we set out to disrupt the way India consumed content and that mission has turned out to be totally revolutionary. Sunil is an exciting talent with global accomplishments and I am very excited to have him lead the talented Disney+ Hotstar team,” he said.

The position was vacant since 2018 when Ajit Mohan exited to head Facebook in India. Rayan is a technologist with more than 20 years of experience.

Disney+ Hotstar was created earlier this year when the new Disney Plus streaming service was merged with the hugely successful Hotstar platform that Disney acquired from 21st Century Fox. It has a mixed business model, with free, ad-supported tiers and a subscription layer delivering premium content including movies and live sport. Disney Plus Hotstar claims over 8 million subscriptions and 300 million monthly average users, making it the most popular streaming service in India.