Disney boss Bob Iger plans to stream the upcoming ICC Cricket World Cup live for free on mobile devices in a bid to revive growth in India, where Disney has lost a third of its subscribers.
Interest in the sport, which is popular in the British Commonwealth of Nations, is rapidly expanding as the number of matches per game in the Indian Premier League increases. value The second largest broadcaster after the NFL.
Private equity firm CVC Capital likes cricket outlook Two years ago, it invested nearly $750 million to buy ownership of the Gujarat Tigers, a new IPL expansion team.
Providing free World Cup live streaming to 600 million mobile devices is “how we build a model that will allow us to more meaningfully drive both revenue streams,” Sajith Sivanandan, head of Disney+ Hotstar, said in an interview. Reutersadding that he is confident of expanding the user base in the coming years.
He called the move a new “hybrid model” aimed at boosting ad revenue by boosting smartphone viewers while winning new subscribers for the Hotstar TV app, where cricket will remain on a paid plan.
Iger is under pressure
Mouse House is under intense pressure to turn around the business as its share price falls to a nine-year low.
Its studio produced a commercial flop this year anothervisitor numbers at theme parks during key summer months DisappointedSince then, the company has found itself a political punching bag, and Iger is rumored to be selling the company to Apple.
India, meanwhile, is one of the few attractive growth markets for big companies like Disney and has overtaken China this year to become the world’s most populous country.
Over a billion consumers have a huge appetite for entertainment, whether it’s sports like cricket or the latest Bollywood blockbuster.
The sport may not be on par with baseball in the U.S. market, but anticipation is building ahead of the ICC World Cup, which begins every four years in October.
This is especially true in India, host of the 2023 World Cup, which is also counted by the Disney Star television broadcaster billion viewers Indian Premier League last season.
But Iger has yet to find a reliable way to turn that demand into cold cash. Subscribers to his Disney+ Hotstar streaming service may be plentiful in sheer numbers, but each pays Iger pennies apiece compared with customers elsewhere.
In its most recent fiscal third quarter, Hotstar’s average revenue per user (ARPU) was just $0.59/month, well below Disney+’s $6.58 revenue elsewhere.
Disney pulls out of bidding war for streaming rights
In June 2022, Disney therefore made a decision to withdraw from the bidding war with the chairman of Reliance Industries, the richest man in Asia. Mukesh Ambani— IPL streaming after organization auctions digital rights separately from linear rights.
Instead, it chose to buy only the rights televised games The cost was $3 billion, a 50% increase from the original plan Previous 2017 transactions Streaming was also included at the time.
“We did a rigorous bid and focused on long-term value,” said Rebecca Campbell, Disney’s head of international content at the time. “Given the price required to obtain the package, we have chosen not to proceed with the digital rights process.”
This was widely predicted to hurt subscriber numbers, but even analysts may have been surprised by the plunge.
The embarrassing loss of $12.5 million in the fiscal third quarter, following a loss of $4.6 million in the previous quarter, saw Disney drop the Hotstar figure entirely in its investor presentation, only taking a toll on the Indian streaming business. perfunctory mention During the quarterly update.
“We adjusted the product from an IPL-centric product to something more balanced with other sports and entertainment products,” Iger said earlier this month before moving on.
All told, Disney+ Hotstar subscribers fell to 40.4 million from a peak of 61.3 million last October. That means it lost a full third of its audience in just nine months.
Svlook
