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The IPL digital rights through 2027 were purchased by Viacom 18, for a staggering sum of Rs 23,758 crore.
The paid subscriber base of Disney+Hotstar, owned by Star India, fell by 4.6 million to 52.9 million in the three months that ended on April 1, 2023, an 8% QoQ reduction. This comes after a decrease of 3.8 million in the preceding quater. The loss of digital rights for the Indian Premier League(IPL's) ongoing season and the failure to a renewed content agreement with Reliance Jio are cited as the causes of the subscriber churn.
The IPL digital rights through 2027 were purchased by Viacom 18, a Mumbai-based media company; it is a joint venture between Network18 Group, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries, Disney star's main competition in India, for a staggering sum of Rs 23,758 crore. Viacom 18 is now through its JioCinema app streaming the IPL live for free. Additionally, as a result of decreasing advertising revenue per subscriber, Disney+Hotstar's avaerage revenue per user(ARPU) fell by 20% to 0.59 USD.
The paid subscriber base of Disney+, which is presently at 157.8 million from 161.8 million in the previous quarter, has decreased by 2% overall due to Disney+Hotstar, available in India and several Southeast Asian nations. The corporation cited fewer viewing for its sports and non-sports channels, which is also anticipated to be an impact of foreign exchange, and lower advertising revenue as the the reason for the decline.
In addition to taking streaming rights for IPL, content from HBO, Max Original and Warner Bros will be also soon be available on JioCinema after Warner Bros Discovery and Viacom18 recently announced a new multi-year agreement to bring titles from the premium American studio to Indian audiences.
As per the deal, HBO Original, Max Original and Warner Bros. Television series will premiere on JioCinema on the same day as the U.S. Previously, Disney+ Hotstar was the default home of HBO content in India, the development comes almost one month after all HBO content left its long-time home Disney+ Hotstar. All HBO content on Disney+Hotstar was removed from the platform on 31st March this year.
It will be very keenly watched how will Disney+Hotstar react to these issues and whether or not will it successfully regain the lost audience through fresh content agreements or what other steps will the platform adopt to control the loss and regain viewers.