Disney's video streaming service Disney+ Hotstar set a global streaming viewership record on October 22, by drawing a peak concurrency of around 43 million viewers during the India vs New Zealand cricket match in the ongoing ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2023.
With this, the streaming platform has surpassed the previous record of 35 million concurrent viewers, that was set during the India versus Pakistan match just over a week ago on October 14.
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 to mobile users in India. This was after rival service JioCinema streamed the IPL tournament for free to consumers earlier this year.
Disney+ Hotstar had also streamed the recently concluded Asia Cup tournament for free on mobile devices, which had resulted in hitting a milestone of 28 million concurrent viewers during the India vs Pakistan cricket match, which was the highest digital viewership for any cricket match involving India at the time.
"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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