Disney+ Hotstar sees user exodus as IPL rights end
NEW DELHI : The loss of Indian Premier League (IPL) streaming rights blew a hole in the subscriber base of Disney+ Hotstar in the June quarter, with 12.5 million users choosing not to renew their subscriptions. Walt Disney Co. said the subscriber base at its video streaming platform shrank 24% from 52.9 million to 40.4 million, the sharpest fall in any quarter yet.
Disney+ Hotstar has been witness to a steady decline in its subscriber base in recent months; the service, which had 61.3 million subscribers at the end of September 2022, has lost more than 20 million—or 34.18% of subscribers—since then. The platform is known as Disney+ Hotstar in India and other Asian countries such as Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia. Its average revenue per user (Arpu) remained flat for Hotstar in the third quarter.
It follows an October to September fiscal year. Overall, Walt Disney saw its video streaming platform Disney+ gain subscribers by 1%, from 104.9 million to 105.7 million. “We aggressively reduced costs across the enterprise, and we’re on track to exceed our initial goal of $5.5 billion in savings.
And perhaps most importantly, we’ve improved our DTC (direct-to-consumer) operating income by roughly $1 billion in just three quarters as we continue to work toward achieving DTC profitability by the end of fiscal 2024," Bob Iger, chief executive, Disney said during an earnings call. Three businesses—film studios, parks business, and streaming—will drive the greatest growth and value creation for the company over the next five years, he said. All three are inextricably linked to brands and franchises.
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