Hotstar is the latest streaming provider in India to support offline viewing of premium content. The Star India-owned streaming platform leads the market, thanks to its premium model, which is not available with either Amazon Prime Video or Netflix in the country.
This update has been spotted on the Google Play store, available to both Android as well iOS users in India this week. Till date, Hotstar strangely limited its premium users from downloading content, a feature which has been well received on Amazon Prime Video as well as Netflix.
In addition to letting users download its premium content, Hotstar is probably the first streaming service in the country to support 18:9 screen resolution, which has become the trend with smartphone since early 2018.
These new features ensure that Hotstar Premium users can not only download hit shows like Game of Thrones and Big Bang Theory on their mobile, but also make the most of the viewing on their screens 18:9 resolution.
The edge-to-edge ratio screen support on Hotstar is a much-needed feature, with over 50 percent of phones sold in the market last year. Hopefully, Amazon Prime Video and Netflix follow suit and offer the support for this resolution in the coming weeks.
We’re not sure if the resolution support is confined to the premium users, or everyone with access to the platform, or even watching live Premier League football matches can experience viewing in the edge-to-edge screen form.
Over the past year or so, we’ve seen Hotstar improving its platform, with heavy work behind the scenes being done to make it user-friendly and mishap-free.
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