In a momentous event for the world of sports streaming, Disney+ Hotstar, Disney’s video streaming service, has set a new global streaming viewership record during the India vs. New Zealand cricket match in the ongoing ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023. On October 22, the platform drew a peak concurrency of approximately 43 million viewers, surpassing its own previous record of 35 million concurrent viewers set during the India vs. Pakistan match just over a week earlier on October 14.
This remarkable back-to-back record-breaking streak coincides with Disney+ Hotstar’s strategy of offering free streaming of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup to mobile users in India. This approach was adopted following a similar initiative by rival service JioCinema, which provided free streaming of the IPL tournament earlier this year.
Notably, Disney+ Hotstar had previously streamed the Asia Cup tournament for free on mobile devices, achieving a milestone of 28 million concurrent viewers during the India vs. Pakistan cricket match. This marked the highest digital viewership for any cricket match involving India at the time.
Sajith Sivanandan, the head of Disney+ Hotstar, expressed the belief that “Making the Asia Cup and ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup available to a wider audience will help us grow the overall ecosystem.”
For Disney+ Hotstar, this achievement comes at a crucial time, as the streaming platform, while leading in India, has faced challenges due to heightened competition in the country’s video streaming industry. The service has experienced a decline in its subscriber base, losing nearly 21 million subscribers in the past three quarters. Its paid membership dropped to 40.4 million subscribers for the quarter ending July 1, 2023, down from its peak of 61.3 million subscribers in the quarter ending October 2022.
This decline occurred as Disney+ Hotstar lost access to key content offerings that initially drove its growth in India, such as IPL streaming rights and premium HBO content. These rights have shifted to Viacom18’s JioCinema. Disney’s interim CFO, Kevin Lansberry, attributed the subscriber decline to a shift in the platform’s product focus from being primarily centered around the IPL to offering a more balanced mix of other sports and entertainment offerings.
These developments take place amid reports that Disney is exploring options for its Star India (now Disney Star) business, which it acquired as part of the $71.3 billion acquisition of 21st Century Fox in 2019. Last year, Disney Star secured the digital and television rights for all ICC events until the end of 2027 for a reported $3 billion, sublicensing the television rights to Zee Entertainment Enterprises.
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Disney+ Hotstar’s recent streaming records underscore the enduring popularity of cricket in India and the growing significance of streaming platforms in delivering sports content to a global audience.
