Walt Disney's video streaming service Disney+ Hotstar set a new global live streaming viewership record on November 5, as the former Indian captain Virat Kohli equalled the record for the most number of ODI hundreds against South Africa during the ICC ODI World Cup 2023 match.
The service witnessed a peak concurrency of 44 million viewers, surpassing the previous record of 43 million viewers set during the India vs New Zealand cricket match just a fortnight ago on October 22.
The streaming platform had also clocked 35 million concurrent viewers during the India versus Pakistan match on October 14, which was the highest concurrent digital viewership at the time.
This back-to-back record-breaking streak comes on the back of Disney+ Hotstar offering free streaming of the ongoing ICC Men's Cricket World Cup and the recently concluded Asia Cup to mobile users in India. This was after rival service JioCinema streamed the IPL tournament for free to consumers earlier this year.
"Making the Asia Cup and ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup available to a wider audience, we believe, will help us grow the overall ecosystem," Sajith Sivanandan, head of Disney+ Hotstar said at the time.
This development is likely to offer some relief to Disney+ Hotstar, which is currently the leading streaming service in the country, but has faced a series of setbacks in the past year or two due to heightened competition in India's video streaming industry.
Disney+ Hotstar, has lost nearly 21 million subscribers in the past three quarters. Its paid member base plummeted to 40.4 million subscribers for the quarter ending July 1, 2023, from a peak of 61.3 million subscribers in the quarter ending October 2022.
The decline in the subscriber base came at a time when the streaming service no longer has access to key content offerings that were instrumental in driving its initial growth in India: IPL streaming rights and premium HBO content, which Viacom18's JioCinema now holds the rights to.
During the company's earnings conference call in August 2023, Disney's interim CFO Kevin Lansberry attributed the subscriber decline to a product adjustment from one that was centred around the IPL to a more balanced one with other sports and entertainment offerings.
These developments also came as Disney is reportedly exploring a sale or a joint venture for its Star India (now Disney Star) business, which the company inherited as part of its $71.3 billion acquisition of 21st Century Fox in 2019.
Last year, Disney Star retained the digital and television rights for all ICC events until the end of 2027 for a reported $3 billion and sublicensed the television rights to Zee Entertainment Enterprises.
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