Disney+ Hotstar Retains Indian Streaming Market Lead Despite IPL Cricket Loss — Study
03.07.2023 - 09:27
/ deadline.com
Disney+ Hotstar lost the rights to offer Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket last year, but the streamer remains India’s market leader, according to Ampere Analysis.
The Disney-owned service has a 29% share of India’s 171 million streaming subscribers, Ampere’s latest report reveals — about 50 million subs as of Q1 2023. Rivals Prime Video and Netflix trail behind with 12.4 million and 6.2 million, respectively.
Disney+ Hotstar has lost some subs, but Ampere predicts it will remain the market leader for some time to come. Its key titles include the Indian remakes of The Night Manager and Criminal Justice, and it offers many Disney, Lucasfilm and Marvel titles.
Last year, Disney pulled out of the bidding for the IPL, which is among the world’s most-watched and most-valuable sporting events. Thought the Twenty20 cricket tournament had been considered a key driver in the service’s growth, the estimated $2.6B it cost auction winner Viacom18 to take the rights was considered too rich. Disney did retain the TV rights to the tournament.
According to Ampere, cost management around sports rights has become a key focus. Dropping out of the IPL race would have saved the service “a figure just short of twice its entire streaming revenue for the past five years.”
Hotstar has also dropped some key licensing pacts. Most notably, we revealed in February the agreement with Warner Bros Discovery for HBO titles was ending, a move confirmed a month later. Viacom18 also bagged these rights as it aggressively looks for new subs.
Ampere noted Disney+ Hotstar has also decided against bidding for packages of Paramount and NBCUniversal titles, with Viacom18’s Jio Cinema the home of these, too.
The UK-based research house said Disney would need