Star (stylized as ST★R) is an over-the-top content brand owned by Disney Streaming. Launched on 23 February 2021, Star primarily operated as a content hub on Disney+ in countries outside of the United States, and now exclusively operates as a content hub on Disney+ in Japan.
Star's content is similar to that of the Disney-owned American streaming service Hulu; it includes films and television series that fall outside of the core Disney+ content brands, including original productions from Hulu, ABC, FX, and Freeform, and content from the libraries of 20th Century Studios and its subsidiaries, ABC Signature, Touchstone Pictures, and Hollywood Pictures among others. Disney CEO Bob Chapek stated that the "Star" brand was used instead of Hulu because it was more recognizable in international markets.
In August 2021, Disney launched the Star brand in Latin and South America as a separate subscription service known as Star+, which also included sports content from ESPN Latin America and Brasil, and other third-party content. Star+ was discontinued in 2024, with its content merged into Disney+ under the Star brand as in other markets.
In 2023, after Disney acquired Comcast's share in Hulu to give it full ownership, the company began to similarly introduce a Hulu content hub to Disney+ in the United States for users subscribed to both services. In August 2025, Disney announced plans to replace Star with Hulu as its global general entertainment brand, which took effect on 8 October 2025, with Japan being the only country to retain the Star branding due to Disney not owning the Hulu brand in Japan.
History
Background
The "Star" brand originated as a Hong Kong-based satellite broadcaster, which operated under that name as an acronym of "Satellite Television Asian Region", it was founded by Hutchison Whampoa in 1990, and had been acquired by News Corporation in 1993. After 2009, the Star brand was mainly restricted to the now-separately owned Star China Media, as well as Star India, which operates primarily in India, but also distributes programming internationally via services targeting viewers of Indian descent. The remainder of the Star Asia Pacific business was later brought under the Fox International Channels division.
Star India (as well as all of the now Fox Networks Group's Asia Pacific operations) was then acquired by Walt Disney as part of its acquisition of 21st Century Fox on 20 March 2019.
During an earnings call on 5 August 2020, Disney CEO Bob Chapek announced that Disney planned to launch a new international, general entertainment service under the "Star" brand name in 2021. The plan superseded a previously announced international expansion of the majority-controlled American streaming service, Hulu, which has only expanded outside the United States to Japan. Chapek argued that, outside of the United States, the Hulu brand is not well known while Star is much more recognizable.
Launch
Disney officially announced Star and Star+ on 10 December 2020, at its Investor Day Event. During the event, it was announced that Star would launch as a sixth brand tile within the Disney+ interface. Additional parental controls would be launched alongside Star's introduction. Although Star would be available at no extra cost to Disney+ subscribers, the introduction of Star would coincide with a price increase. Star was launched in Canada, United Kingdom, Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore on 23 February 2021, while the service was launched in Hong Kong and Taiwan later in 2021. Disney promoted the launch by naming several stars in the International Star Registry.
Star+ was launched in Latin America on 31 August 2021. Star was also to launch in Central and Eastern Europe, Israel, South Africa and the MENA region in 2022. Star was launched in Japan and South Korea on 27 October 2021 and 12 November 2021, respectively. It was indeed launched in May 2022 in South Africa and in June 2022 in various MENA and European countries.
Subsequently, the European feeds of Star Plus, Star Bharat and Star Gold were rebranded as Utsav Plus, Utsav Bharat and Utsav Gold, respectively, on 22 January 2021, to avoid confusion with the streaming hub. Disney plans to produce more Korean, Japanese and other Asian content under Star and Disney+ in the next few years.
In May 2023, Disney rolled out the Star hub for Disney+ Hotstar subscribers in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. In December 2023, in a similar manner to Star, Disney began to test a Hulu hub on Disney+ for subscribers in the United States that are subscribed to both services.
In March 2024, it was announced that the Star hub would be added on Disney+ in Latin America on 26 June 2024, while its separate platform, Star+, would be discontinued on 24 July of the same year.
Planned phase-out and shift towards Hulu (excluding Japan)
On 6 August 2025, after the completion of its acquisition of Comcast's stake in the service, Disney announced plans to fully migrate Hulu to the Disney+ platform in the United States. While Disney+ and Hulu will remain separate subscription products, their separate apps were to be replaced by a new "unified" platform in 2026. Concurrently, Disney also announced that it would replace Star with Hulu (excluding Japan) as its "global general entertainment brand". The launch officially occurred on 8 October.
Content
General content
Star includes a range of content produced or otherwise owned by Disney and its subsidiaries, including television programs produced by ABC Signature, MTM Enterprises, Touchstone Television, 20th Television, 20th Television Animation, FXP, Freeform Studios, and their divisions and predecessors, as well as films from the 20th Century Studios, 20th Century Animation, Searchlight Pictures, Touchstone Pictures, and Hollywood Pictures libraries and some films from the Miramax Films library. Much of the TV content was originally produced for Disney-owned networks and services such as ABC, FX, and Freeform. Other programs were originally commissioned by third-party networks but have been made available on Star because Disney has retained the international distribution rights.
In Europe, Disney+ and Star offer local content from third-party distributors in addition to local in-house and co-productions. The reason for this is a regulation that requires a certain percentage of European productions. In order to comply with this requirement, Disney has entered into a partnership with various local distributors from France and Germany, among others. In Japan, besides Disney-owned contents, Star also provides anime series produced in the country.
Multi-year deal with Sony Pictures
In April 2021, Disney and Sony Pictures reached a multi-year deal to let Sony's titles stream on Hulu and Disney+ or premiered on Disney linear television, it also merged separated existing deal between Funimation (now Crunchyroll) and Hulu. While title begins to add on Hulu and Disney+ until September 2022, Marvel related titles starting with Spider-Man films added to Disney+'s Marvel hub in June 2022. This also included the animated Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. All three Sam Raimi-directed Spider-Man films and The Amazing Spider-Man would eventually be made available on the American version of the platform on 21 April 2023, with Spider-Man: Homecoming and Venom, a film in Sony's Spider-Man Universe, being made available the following month. Other mature and non-Marvel related Sony Pictures titles that premiered on Disney's linear networks available on the Star hub (specifically from Sony Pictures Television) include ABC's The Good Doctor, For Life and Schooled, FX's Justified, Damages and Rescue Me and Hulu's Future Man (which is no longer available following the 26 May 2023 purge of Disney+ titles). Initially, non-Marvel related titles and Crunchyroll-licensed titles were only available on Hulu in the United States, and multiple titles started to be available on Disney+ in March 2024 through the Hulu on Disney+ hub.
Exclusive content
Many productions for which the local first release is carried out by Star are advertised and offered as Star Originals or Star Exclusives. Most of these productions come from the streaming services (such as Hulu) and TV channels (such as ABC, Freeform, FX, ESPN, or National Geographic) of the Walt Disney Company. Selected productions from its sister services Star+ and Disney+ Hotstar may come to Star, Disney+ original series and movies that are not labelled under Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars or National Geographic are also released to Star outside of the United States and Latin America but retain their Disney+ Originals status. Disney also has local partnerships with licensors and distributes selected productions worldwide. One Such partnership, for example is with the Japanese TV broadcaster TBS.
Availability
Star has been exclusively available as part of Disney+ in Japan since 8 October 2025. It was previously available in numerous other countries outside of the United States before the Star brand was replaced with the Hulu brand.
History
Founding and early years (1990–2000)
Star TV (Satellite Television Asian Region) was founded in 1990 as a joint venture between Hutchison Whampoa and Li Ka-shing. It launched Hollywood English-language entertainment channels for Asian audiences and in India as Star India. Its first five channels included Star Plus (then an English-language entertainment channel), Star Chinese Channel, Prime Sports, MTV Asia (now Channel V) and BBC World Service Television (now simply BBC News).
In 1992, Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation purchased 63.6% of Star India for $525 million, followed by the purchase of the remaining 36.4% on 1 January 1993. Star broadcasting operations were run from Rupert Murdoch's Fox Broadcasting premises. It later launched Star Movies, Channel V, and Star News with a limited Hindi offering, and then Star Plus for Indian viewers.
2001–2017
In 2001, Star India acquired South India based Vijay TV, renaming it Star Vijay. In 2003, Star India's Star News deal with NDTV ended. In the same year, the Indian government introduced a guideline limiting foreign equity in the national news business to 26%. At that time Star India was wholly owned by Hong Kong-based company Satellite Television Asia Region Ltd. As a result, Star India entered into a joint venture with the Anandabazar Patrika group (ABP) to form a new company, Media Content and Communications Services Pvt. Ltd. (MCCS), which took control of Star News' operations. ABP held a 74% majority stake, while Star India reduced its participation with the remaining 26% to comply with the regulations set for the uplinking of news and current affairs channels by the government of India. Star India, subsequently exited from this joint venture in 2012. After the split, the channel was renamed ABP News and operated by the Anandabazar Patrika Group.
In 2004, Star One was launched as a Hindi youth-oriented channel. In 2008, Star Jalsha and Star Pravah, Bengali and Marathi language general entertainment channels respectively, were launched.
In 2009, Star India acquired Kerala-based media conglomerate Asianet Communications, which served Malayalam language content. In August 2009, the Star Group restructured its Asian broadcast businesses into three units – Star India, Star China Media, and Fox International Channels Asia.
In the same year, Star Affiliate and CJ Group of South Korea launched CJ Alive (later known as Shop CJ), a 24-hour Indian television shopping channel that used Star Utsav for hosting the television marketing programs in six-hour slots in its initial stage of launch. Star Affiliate exited the joint venture in May 2014.
News Corporation launched a film production and distribution business in India through Fox Star Studios, an affiliate of Star India in the same year.
In April 2012, Star India won the rights to Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) through 2018, replacing Nimbus Communications. Valued at ₹3,851 crore (equivalent to ₹79 billion or US$820 million in 2026), the agreement included rights to India national cricket team home matches on television and mobile streaming, as well as domestic tournaments such as the Ranji Trophy and Irani Cup.
On 6 November 2013, Star India rebranded its Star Sports channels, renaming the main Star Sports channel to Star Sports 1, Star Cricket to Hindi-language Star Sports 3, ESPN to Tamil-language Star Sports 4, and Star Cricket HD and ESPN HD to Star Sports HD1 and HD2.
In February 2015, Star India launched its streaming service, Hotstar, a mobile and online entertainment OTT platform that features content in 9 Indian languages and broadcasts sporting events. Star also acquired the broadcast businesses of Maa TV to boost its presence in Telugu-speaking markets, renaming it Star Maa.
In February 2017, Star India and global media conglomerate TED announced a new TV series, TED Talks India – Nayi Soch. The programme starred Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan and featured newer TED talks made in Hindi language. The programme followed the signature TED format of prominent speakers voicing their opinions in an 18-minute or less monologue in front of a live audience.
On 28 August 2017, Star India rebranded its Hindi entertainment channel Life OK to Star Bharat.