Subscriber target lowers down for Disney+Hotstar after losing out on IPL streaming rights

Entertainment conglomerate Walt Disney has lowered its subscriber target for its streaming platform Disney+ Hotstar after losing out on the streaming rights for the next cycle of IPL tournaments from 2023 to 2027 to Viacom 18.

The company held an earnings conference call on August 10, where the company’s chief financial officer Christine McCarthy acknowledged that losing out on the IPL streaming rights to Viacom 18 will hinder its overall subscriber growth as the IPL attracted a large number of subscribers for the streaming platform in the previous cycle. 

The company lowered its end of FY 2024 target from 230-260 million to 215-245 million and expects around 80 million subscribers from Disney+ Hotstar. Christine McCarthy stated that the targets will be clearer, post the completion of the ICC and BCCI cricket rights sales processes.

“As you may know we recently made the disciplined decision to not proceed with the Indian Premier League digital rights and we’ll evaluate these rights with that same discipline,” she said to MoneyControl.

Disney surpassed Netflix in its overall global subscriber base

Earlier this year, in the third quarter ending July 2, 2022, Disney+ Hotstar accumulated eight million paid subscribers taking its paid user base to 58.4 million, a 30 percent jump from last year’s Q3 results. The significant growth in its user base is attributed to the interest generated by the IPL conducted between March to May 2022. However, McCarthy believes it to be a disciplined decision and is adamant to use the same framework for other cricket rights acquisitions.

Reliance Industries Ltd, which owns 51 percent in Viacom18, bagged the streaming rights for a whopping Rs 23,758 crore for 410 matches in the next cycle of the IPL and will be streaming the matches on its video streaming platform Voot.

Notably, Disney now has surpassed streaming giants Netflix in its global subscriber base by surpassing 221.1 million subscribers across its streaming services— Disney+, ESPN+, and Hulu. Netflix took a massive hit by losing nearly 970,000 subscribers and reported 220.67 million global subscribers last quarter.