Disney+ Hotstar paid subscriber base shrinks 6% due to non-renewal of Jio deal, IPL loss

According to Walt Disney’s Q1 2023 results, Disney+ Hotstar’s paid subscriber base has shrunk by 3.8 million to 57.5 million from 61.3 million in the exit quarter of the 2022 fiscal.

Further, the average monthly revenue per paid subscriber for Disney+ Hotstar has shrunk by 28% to $0.74 from $0.58. Disney follows the October to September financial calendar.

“In Q2 2022, Disney+ Hotstar introduced shorter-duration quarterly packs to drive subscriber growth. However, the failure to renew IPL digital rights has left a major vacuum of compelling cricket content after the conclusion of the ICC T20 World Cup last year,” said Media Partners Asia VP Mihir Shah.

“In October 2022, Jio also pulled out Disney+ Hotstar from all mobile postpaid and prepaid plans. These factors led to a sharp drop in the platform’s paying base in Q4,” he added.

Shah believes that the loss of IPL digital rights will continue to bite into the paid subscriber base of the platform. “The major challenge (for Disney+ Hotstar) will be managing Q1 this year as the IPL vacuum erosion and capital efficiency will limit investment in local originals,” he said.

Not having IPL digital rights will also potentially impact Disney+ Hotstar’s content deal renewal with JioFiber, said Shah.”Absence of IPL in its portfolio may also endanger Disney’s JioFiber agreement coming up for renewal in 2023. In aggregate, we estimate that the platform may lose upwards of 15 million subscribers this year,” he said.

In a note, London-based research firm Ampere Analysis said Disney+ has seen global subscriber losses for the first time primarily due to a dip in the subscriber base of Disney+ Hotstar, which is available in India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.

Overall, Disney+ has lost 2.4 million subscribers to end the year 2022 with 161.8 million subscriptions.

“The loss came primarily from the Disney+ Hotstar brand in APAC where the platform saw a loss of almost 4 million subscribers, which was offset by smaller gains in its core Disney+ brand, which covers the US and most international markets,” Ampere said.

Disney+ Hotstar, which is operated by Star India-controlled Novi Digital Entertainment, had recorded 93% growth in its total turnover of Rs 3,220.41 crore and a 43% reduction in a net loss to Rs 343.16 crore for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2022.

Ad revenue zoomed 103% to Rs 1,684.31 crore while subscription revenue surged 65% to Rs 1,373.61 crore.

Disney+ Hotstar app has been downloaded by more than 500 million users. Further, Disney+ Hotstar has had up to 221 million monthly active users during 2021-2022.