IPL Disney + Hotstar Subscribers: India’s top live streaming platform Disney + Hotstar has suffered a major setback due to IPL. Disney+ Hotstar lost 12 million subscribers in the April-June quarter. In fact, India’s biggest streaming platform has suffered a huge loss due to the non-availability of streaming rights for the Indian Premier League. The company had failed to retain the streaming rights of IPL.
Disney + Hotstar: Big loss due to not getting IPL digital streaming rights
The subscriber base of Disney’s India-focused OTT platform fell 24% to 40 million in the April-June quarter from 59 million a quarter ago.
Jio Cinema acquires IPL digital rights of last season
Disney achieved the feat on the Indian streaming platform Hotstar. Subsequently, in the last decade, millions of subscribers were added by live streaming of cricket matches, especially the IPL tournament. The whole game changed when Jio Cinema, a company backed by industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries, acquired the digital rights of the IPL last season. This helped Jio to carve out a niche in a market dominated by Disney.
Viacom18 got the advantage of IPL digital streaming
Meanwhile, JioCinema will stream the IPL in 2023 after Mukesh Ambani’s Viacom18 acquired the IPL digital streaming rights for Rs 23,758 crore. Jio Cinema App achieved 32 million (32 million) users. But it is not yet clear how many of those viewers have stayed on the platform after the IPL 2023 season ends in May.
