Disney's video streaming service Disney+ Hotstar set a new global live streaming viewership record on November 19, as India took on Australia during the final match of ICC ODI World Cup 2023.
Disney+ Hotstar hit 59 million concurrent viewers, surpassing the previous record of 53 million concurrent viewers, set during the India versus New Zealand semi-final match on November 15.
Disney+ Hotstar, the current market leader in India's booming streaming landscape, has been on a back-to-back record-breaking streak over the past month.
This success has been bolstered by offering free ad-supported streaming of the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup and the recently concluded Asia Cup to mobile users in India. The move came 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," said Sajith Sivanandan, head of Disney+ Hotstar, while announcing this move in June 2023.
This milestone comes at a time when Disney is considering various options for its India business, which it inherited as part of its $71.3 billion acquisition of 21st Century Fox in 2019. In recent months, media reports have suggested that Disney is exploring a sale or a joint venture for its Star India (now Disney Star) business.
"It is one of the most populous countries in the world, second to China. We would like to stay in that market but we are also looking to see whether we can strengthen our hand and improve the bottom line," Disney CEO Bob Iger said during the company's earnings call on November 8.
Iger mentioned on the call that their linear television business was doing quite well in India and making money, while other parts of their business (which likely includes Disney+ Hotstar) have been a challenge.
Novi Digital Entertainment, the company's subsidiary, which owns Disney+ Hotstar, saw a 118 percent jump in net loss to Rs 748 crore in the financial year ended March 31, 2023 (FY23), from Rs 343.16 crore loss in FY22. Revenue jumped 35 percent to Rs 4,341 crore for FY23 from Rs 3,259 crore in FY22.
Disney+ Hotstar has also been struggling to contain its subscriber losses, losing about 23.7 million paid subscribers in a year, including a 2.8 million subscriber drop in the latest quarter. The service's overall subscriber base has slid to 37.6 million for the quarter ended September 2023, from a peak of 61.3 million in October last year.
The decline in the subscriber base is primarily due to Disney+ Hotstar losing 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, Kevin Lansberry, who was serving as Disney's interim CFO at the time, had 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.
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.
Note: The story has been updated with new information on Disney+ Hotstar viewership.
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