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In the April to June period, Disney + Hotstar lost 12.5 million (1.25 crore) paid customers. India’s top streaming service continues to lose consumers due to the Indian Premier League (IPL) absence, despite reports that the company’s parent company, The Walt Disney Company, is considering selling its India operations.
Disney’s India-focused OTT platform (Disney + Hotstar) showed a 24% decline in paying subscribers to 40.4 million in the April-June quarter from 52.9 million the previous quarter.
61.3 million people in Asia were subscribers of Disney + Hotstar as of the end of September 2022. The majority of it originated from India, making it the top streamer in that nation in terms of user base, well outpacing competitors Amazon Prime Video (about 20 million) and Netflix (around 6-7 million).
Kevin Lansberry, interim chief financial officer, stated during the post-result earnings call early on Thursday: “Disney + Hotstar subscribers declined this quarter as we adjusted our product from one centered around the IPL to one more balanced with other sports and entertainment offerings. I would also note that this business with its significantly lower ARPU compared to core Disney+ is not a material component of our overall D2C financial results.”
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Disney + Hotstar downfall
Disney + Hotstar average revenue per user (ARPU) was $0.59, compared to Core Disney+’s $6.58. The IPL cricket event, for which the platform was able to draw a sizable portion of that subscriber base but has since lost the digital streaming rights to Viacom18, which is supported by Reliance, for the 2023–27 cycle.
Since then, Disney + Hotstar fate has changed. Since the end of September 2022, its subscriber base has decreased steadily, losing a total of more than 20 million customers in just nine months. Since March 31, the platform has also halted streaming HBO material, which includes well-known programs like Game of Thrones, The Last of Us, and Succession.
The Walt Disney Company uses a calendar that runs from October to September. Disney’s management anticipated that the user base for Disney + Hotstar would fall in October through December 2022 and stabilize in January through March 2023, but the decline has persisted.
Star India joined Disney in 2018 when the company acquired 21st Century Fox, the media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s company. The streaming service Disney + Hotstar is a part of Star India, which has been rebranded as Disney Star following the merger of the two media behemoths. There have recently been discussions about Walt Disney selling its India operations.
CSK lifting IPL 2023 trophy (Photo: IPL)JioCinema, the parent company, began airing the IPL in 2023 after purchasing the exclusive digital streaming rights for a staggering Rs 23,758 crore. The Mukesh Ambani-backed app reported 3.2 crore (32 million) concurrent viewers as its peak viewership.
The number of those watchers who remained on the platform after the IPL 2023 season concluded in May is still unknown, though. Portal also released more than 100 original films and television programs, many of which were made just for JioCinema as competition for the top spot in India’s video OTT market heats up.
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