In September 2018, Hotstar CEO Ajit Mohan left to become the vice-president and managing director of Facebook India. In May 2018, it was reported that the service had 75-100 million active users per-month.

Hotstar launched in the United Kingdom in September 2018, to coincide with the 2018 Asia Cup. Afterward, Hotstar launched an international subscription service in Canada and the United States, aimed towards providing its domestic Indian content and sports. In September 2017, Star Sports acquired the entirety of the media rights to the Indian Premier League, with Hotstar acting as the international digital rightsholder. 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. While international services such as Amazon Prime Video and Netflix have seen some growth in the Indian market, Hotstar remained the dominant service. 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. 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. In April 2016, Hotstar launched a subscription tier, oriented towards international content and the possibility of premium sports content.

He estimated that by 2020, the service could account for nearly a quarter of Star's annual revenue. Star CEO Sanjay Gupta felt that there ' many platforms available to Indian consumers offering high-quality, curated content besides, say, YouTube', and explained that the service would appeal most prominently to the growing young adult demographic, and feature 'very targeted' advertising. The ad-supported service initially featured a library of over 35,000 hours of content in seven regional languages, as well as live streaming coverage of sports such as cricket (on a tape delay of several minutes), football, and kabaddi. Star India officially launched Hotstar in February 2014 after fifteen months of development, coinciding with the upcoming 2015 Indian Premier League (for which Star had recently acquired the streaming rights).

Hotstar star suvarna