Disney Fires Up Sports Streaming War Against India's Richest Man On His Home Turf

This article was first published on the Benzinga India Portal.

Digital streaming giant Disney+Hotstar, owned by the Walt Disney Co DIS, announced on Friday that it would make cricket tournaments like the Asia Cup and ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup free for all mobile users in India.

What Happened? This move comes after the platform lost the streaming rights for the widely-followed Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournament to JioCinema, owned by India's richest man, Mukesh Ambani.

JioCinema, whose parent is Reliance Industries Ltd, chose to make the tournament free for viewing, which led to a record-breaking 1.47 billion digital views in just the first weekend of the tournament. By removing the paywall, Hotstar aims to regain some of the audience that shifted to JioCinema for IPL matches.

According to a report from May 2023, Hotstar witnessed a significant loss of about 8.4 million subscribers over the past six months. This dip has contributed to a 2% decrease in overall Disney+ memberships, bringing the total down from 161.8 million to 157.8 million.

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Streaming wars: During the quarter that ended on April 1, Disney+ Hotstar in India suffered an 8% drop in memberships. It lost 4.6 million subscribers, bringing its total subscriber count down to 52.9 million. This downturn is the second quarterly subscriber loss in a row and coincides with Hotstar losing the rights to stream Indian Premier League (IPL) matches and HBO content.

JioCinema, in addition to acquiring HBO content rights, has recently inked a multi-year agreement with NBC Universal. This deal will deliver a range of movies and TV shows from the US media company to Indian audiences, thereby intensifying competition for Hotstar.

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