Disney+Hotstar Survival Game

Another contest, equally engrossing, is playing out on the sidelines: Viacom 18 vs Disney Star.

Viacom18 Media Pvt Ltd, controlled by Reliance Industries Ltd, holds the streaming rights of the cricket extravaganza. It claimed peak concurrency—the highest number of viewers at one point during the livestream—was 16 million on the opening day. Overall, 60 million viewers streamed the match that day on their phones, laptops or smart TVs. And in the first weekend, the average time spent by each viewer per match totaled 57 minutes, up 60% from last year, the company announced. Viacom18 further said that viewers were preferring to watch the tournament on its digital platform, JioCinema, where it was streaming for free.

It was a clear dig at Disney Star, the media firm owned by The Walt Disney Company. Disney Star had both the satellite and digital rights of the IPL till last year. Company spent in June 2022 23,575 crore to buy television broadcast rights for the tournament for five years from 2023, but left the coveted digital media rights to Viacom18, which made a staggering bid 23,758 crores.

Citing viewership data from the Broadcast Audience Research Council, the Disney star claimed that free live streaming of the IPL has not caused a drop in TV ratings – it has only increased in the last one year.

In some ways, the Disney star was prepared for the barbs that came her way. Its video streaming platform Disney+ Hotstar premieres gas light, a mystery film starring Sara Ali Khan and Vikrant Massey on the opening day of IPL. While Cricket won with a sweep, the numbers for the mid-budget thriller are also impressive. Media consulting firm Ormax estimated that it was viewed 3.7 million times within India in the week ending 2 April and was the most viewed Hindi-language over-the-top (OTT) original on top streaming platforms.

Claims and counter-claims aside, there appears to be a big question mark around the future of Disney+Hotstar. After all, the streaming platform built its reputation and strength on the back of IPL, which it has been streaming since 2015.

Hotstar was launched by Star India – this coincided with the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup as well as the IPL that year, for which the company acquired the streaming rights.

In June 2018, Walt Disney acquired Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox Inc in a $71 billion cash and stock deal, making Star India, Fox Star Studios and Hotstar Media part of the group. At that time, 21st Century Fox’s business in India was placed under Star India. In 2020, Hotstar was rebranded as Disney+ Hotstar.

The platform dominates the video streaming market in India today, and is ahead of rivals such as Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, SonyLIV, ZEE5 and many more in terms of subscribers (Netflix is ​​number 1 in terms of subscription revenue). Disney+Hotstar saw sponsorship and advertising value 1,500 crore in 2022, Peppermint Reported earlier. Market watchers estimate that the IPL made up 70% of the advertising revenue.

“It’s true that the IPL played a significant role in the success of Disney+ Hotstar and helped position it as the leading streaming service in the country,” said Sajith Sivanandan, Head of Disney+ Hotstar, India. While our subscriber numbers came for the IPL, they stayed for the rest of our content offering. IPL essentially gave us an opportunity to showcase our proliferation of local and global entertainment content to our customers.” He further added that today the platform has struck the right balance between sports and entertainment.

Despite this optimism, Disney+ Hotstar may be on a slippery slope – apart from the IPL, the platform has stopped streaming tens of popular international content. Hence, the growth rate of the platform has slowed down in the last few months. In the December quarter of 2022, its subscriber base globally declined to 57.5 million from 61.3 million earlier. India accounts for the majority of its customers.

A change in strategy has made up for some of this loss.

succession and goals

In November 2022, Disney rehired Bob Iger as its chief executive, just 11 months after leaving the company. He replaced Bob Chapek amid a decline in the company’s share price.

As the shakeup occurred, analysts predicted that Iger would focus on financial discipline and higher profitability, particularly for Disney’s streaming business. In the months that followed, he followed the expected path. The company has announced 7,000 reduction in workforce; It’s targeting $5.5 billion in cost savings across all verticals, including $3 billion in savings just on the content side, excluding games.

However, in India, the company’s strategy of restructuring had been in the works for some time. People familiar with the working of the company said that the corridors of Disney India are not filled with tension due to the loss of IPL.

“They have assimilated that news (IPL) some time back and are set to increase their entertainment offering for 12-18 months,” said an entertainment industry expert tracking the company. “The IPL was the fuel to get them somewhere. But now, they need other ways to stay the course. It was a pivot in the making.”

This pivot hinges on a multi-pronged strategy. First, and most critically, Disney+ Hotstar wants to build on local originals, the intellectual property of which is entirely owned by Disney, in multiple Indian languages. Second, it seeks to utilize the shelf life of television programming from Star India’s satellite TV channels such as Star Plus, Star Vijay and others. Third, it’s likely to replicate the draw of original Disney content, including Marvel, Star Wars and Pixar franchises, to meet demand for international programming. Fourth, it hopes to capitalize on the allure of movies, both directly streamed on the Hotstar platform or acquired after their theatrical release. Lastly, the strategy is to pile on the sports portfolio. There is no IPL, but the platform still has other premium cricket, football and tennis properties.

house of woes

Let’s take a closer look at the streaming platform’s second disadvantage, which is a result of its focus on financial discipline.

Since March 31, the Disney star has removed 144 HBO originals as the company decided to move forward with its long-term content deal with Warner Bros. Discovery, a global media and entertainment company and HBO’s parent firm. The company paid $10 million a year for HBO content and it wasn’t worth it, given its niche audience, the company argued.

As a result, popular series such as game of Thrones, house of dragons, last of usAnd succession Will no longer be available on the service. Racing property Formula 1 will also no longer stream on the platform. This has raised further concerns over the future and viability of Disney+ Hotstar in India.

Several industry experts said that Hotstar is losing customers drastically – at least two-thirds of its existing customers in the short term. “This will be a big dent to the global Disney subscriber base. Hotstar may be a low ARPU (average revenue per user) offering, but when it comes to the number of Disney subscribers globally, India is definitely on top.” One of the five markets. To be recognized, said.

“It’s definitely an annual membership struggle for them. A fair trial period that no one can compensate for,” said a media analyst, who did not wish to be identified. By May, persons were added.

many knights

So, how will Disney+ Hotstar survive this fall?

Some experts point out that year-round entertainment brings in far more spectators than big events like the IPL, which runs for 60 days. Apart from this, there are many Hotstar Original Superhits. For example, coffee with karan, a celebrity talk show, clocks in more viewership than the entire library of niche HBO content. Plus, the company can still fall back on original Disney content, including Marvel Studios movies and TV series.

“Disney+ Hotstar has a strong content library across Marvel shows. according to our viewership projections from 2021, while HBO’s house of the dragonOn Disney+Hotstar, which topped the list with 28.2 million viewership, it is Marvel shows that make up for seven of the top 20 most-watched international web series in India,” said media consulting firm Ormax partner Kirat Grewal said.

Marvel’s bouquet includes Moon Knight (viewership of 23.4 million); Hawkeye (19.3 million) and Ms. Marvel (15.1 million). They compare favorably to Prime Video The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (22 million), Grewal said.

From an advertiser lens, the platform has a strong base of freemium consumers, a mature ad tech stack and a strong tail of growing connected TV households, said Shekhar Banerjee, chief customer officer and office head-west, Wavemaker India. Wavemaker is a media agency network.

In fact, many media experts said that the number of subscribers should not be the only metric used to evaluate a platform’s performance; Monetization is what investors are keen on, with both advertising and subscription revenue being key. As far as subscription revenue is concerned, Disney+ Hotstar ranks third in India after Netflix and Prime Video, according to estimates by Media Partners Asia, a research outfit.

edge of special

As we mentioned earlier, Disney+ Hotstar wants to stay relevant by virtue of its Indian origin. What has been its track record so far and what is cooking?

its hits include Rudra: The Age of Darkness (viewership of 35.2 million); Criminal Justice: Behind Closed Doors (29.1 million); night manager (27.2 million); breaking news (23.5 million); The Great Indian Murder (23 million).

Going forward, the company’s strategy will continue to revolve around content in multiple languages.

“Disney+ Hotstar announced exciting new content titles late last year where we unveiled three new projects that are currently in the works. with success we saw Koffee With Karan Season 7, we are happy to bring it back for an eighth season. We are also strengthening our relationship with Karan Johar and Dharma by collaborating on their new show show time (a web series),” said Gaurav Banerjee, Head-Content, Disney+ Hotstar and HSM (Hindi-speaking market) entertainment network, Disney Star. Dharma Productions is an Indian film production company, headed by filmmaker Karan Johar. Are.

“We are also looking forward mahabharat aarya season 3 saas bahu aur flamingo And good wife” Banerjee said. These Indian originals are yet to be released.

It is difficult to predict the success of any web series or film. All we know is that in the past, the platform’s viewership was likely driven by annual subscriptions. These subscriptions were, in turn, driven by interest in the IPL. While Disney+Hotstar can bank on cheaper packages, such as a three-month pack, converting free users into subscribers will still be an uphill battle without cricketing shows. And as a rival media executive quoted earlier said, “Disney+Hotstar now has to come up with really compelling Hindi shows that can attract viewers. Customers are loyal to the content, not the platform.”