Disney+ Hotstar loses 4.6 million paid subscribers in January-March

In its Q1 2023 results for the period ending December, Walt Disney reported that Disney+ Hotstar’s paid subscriber base dropped by 3.8 million to 57.5 million from 61.3 million in the exit quarter of the fiscal year 2022. Walt Disney follows the October-September fiscal calendar.

In the first two quarters of fiscal 2023, Disney+ Hotstar’s subscriber base saw a reduction of 8.4 million subscribers. Industry watchers say that the churn in the subscriber base can be attributed to the loss of Indian Premier League (IPL) digital rights and the non-renewal of the content deal with Reliance Jio.

Viacom18, Disney Star’s rival in India, has picked up the IPL digital rights till 2027 for a whopping sum of Rs 23,758 crore. The IPL is being streamed live on Viacom18’s JioCinema app for free.

Recently, the Reliance Industries-owned company had also signed a multi-year, multi-million dollar content deal with Warner Bros. Discovery for HBO, Warner Bros., and Max Original. Earlier, Disney+ Hotstar was the default home of HBO content in India.

The non-renewal of HBO is also expected to create a small dent in the platform’s subscriber base, media analysts have said.

Disney+ Hotstar’s average revenue per user (ARPU) decreased 20% to $0.59 from $0.74 in the prior quarter due to lower per-subscriber advertising revenue. The Star India-owned streaming service is available in India and certain other Southeast Asian countries.Overall, Disney+’s paid subscriber base dropped by 2% to 157.8 million from 161.8 million in the prior quarter, primarily due to a decline in Disney+ Hotstar’s subscriber base and a marginal 1% dip in the home markets of the US and Canada.

Walt Disney’s quarterly revenue from international channels decreased by 18% to $1.1 billion. The company’s operating income decreased 65% to $85 million, primarily due to lower advertising revenue, which was partially offset by a decrease in programming costs.

The company said that the lower advertising revenue was due to decreases in impressions and rates and an unfavourable foreign exchange impact. Lower impressions were attributable to decreases in average viewership at the company’s sports and non-sports channels.

It further added that the decrease in the viewership of sports channels was primarily due to the airing of fewer IPL matches in the current quarter compared to the prior-year quarter, as the 2023 IPL season started approximately one week later than the 2022 season.

The company noted that the decrease was partially offset by airing more Board of Control for Cricket in India matches in the current quarter compared to the prior-year quarter.