Disney+ Hotstar reports highest ever subscriber loss in the June quarter

Disney+ Hotstar, one of the leading streaming platforms in India has seen the biggest decline in its subscriber base since its launch during the June quarter. The latest quarterly results show a 24 percent drop in subscribers for Disney+ Hotstar in India.

The streaming platform lost a total of 12.5 million subscribers in the June quarter, which is the highest ever on record. This is also the third straight quarter for which Disney+ Hotstar has lost subscribers.

Over the last nine months, over 21 million subscribers have exited the platform. The base quarter was the one which had the IPL, for which Disney+ Hotstar has lost the rights to.

In June last year, Disney-Star lost the right to broadcast the IPL on the digital platform to Reliance-owned Viacom18. Meanwhile, the partnership between HBO and Hotstar has also ended, leaving the platform without some of its most successful and watched shows like Succession, Game of Thrones, Westworld among others. JioCinema has already signed a deal with HBO for its content.

JioCinema has also launched a range of original content in local languages, including Marathi, Bengali, Gujarati, and Bhojpuri. Genres range from action, drama, thriller and romance to horror and musicals.

Disney+ Hotsar has been steadily losing subscribers over the last few quarters. In fact, the platform lost over one crore subscribers between September 2022 and March 2023. The decline coincided with the absence of its most popular offerings - HBO content and the IPL. Analysts had projected that the loss of IPL's digital rights could cost them 15-25 million subscribers. Over the last three quarters, the platform has lost 21 million subscribers.

The decline in subscribers also coincides with the rise of Reliance Industries-owned JioCinema, which has now come very close to YouTube's monthly viewership. As per the June quarter release from Reliance Industries, 449 million people tuned in for the IPL, with 120 million of those joining for the final itself. IPL on JioCinema also delivered record advertising revenue.

JioCinema’s advertising revenue was higher than TV itself as the platform attracted more than 13 times the number of advertisers on TV.

The move by JioCinema to offer free IPL streaming has led to Hotstar following suit for the upcoming ICC Men’s ODI World Cup 2023. It remains to be seen if viewers tune in with similar numbers for the same.