Introduction:
Things are less prevalent in India-Pakistan Cricket Match. For Disney’s Hotstar, which has lost over 20 million subscribers in the last three quarters and whose executives are expected to step up their search for a buyer for its India operations, a high-profile match between neighbors India and Pakistan provided a much-needed break.
On Saturday, Disney‘s Hotstar broke the world record for on-demand video streaming by attracting 35 million concurrent viewers to a cricket match.
The achievement tops the previous record of 32 million viewers achieved by Viacom18’s JioCinema, supported by Mukesh Ambani, the wealthiest person in Asia. The record-breaking cricket match streaming was one of many Hotstar has achieved in the previous five years.
To counter Viacom18, which outbid the global behemoth for the five-year streaming rights of the cricket tournament IPL and has quickly gained popularity, Disney is streaming the ICC World Cup cricket events for free to mobile viewers in India. Viacom18 has increased rapidly in popularity.
We want to thank all the viewers who logged on to Disney+ Hotstar to witness the India-Pakistan match. Your passion for the sport enabled Disney+ Hotstar to smash all prior records for all cricket formats and reach a peak concurrency of 3.5 crore viewers, according to a statement from Sajith Sivanandan, Head of Disney+ Hotstar India.
As long as there are cricketing rivalries, we’ll uphold our promise to provide all our users with an unparalleled viewing experience. We anticipate having a lot more of these kinds of encounters as the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup progresses.
India-Pakistan Cricket Match helps Disney’s Hotstar:
India-Pakistan Cricket Match helps Disney’s Hotstar [Source of Image: Techcrunch.com]
Disney is relieved to have regained the vanity metric while its officials search for a buyer for Star India, which owns Hotstar. After the current cricket World Cup concludes next month, top India executives are scheduled to fly to the US headquarters to decide the future of Disney India’s business. TechCrunch received this information from two individuals familiar with the matter.
In the past few weeks, the company has initiated initial conversations with several firms as it looks to gauge interest in its India business, a segment that held significant value as Fox’s prized asset before its acquisition by Disney. These companies include the Indian conglomerate Reliance and some private equity titans.
However, due to a declining market and an aggressive move by Ambani, who has recruited several top Star India executives to lead Viacom18, the fate of Star India has shifted in recent years. Bodhi Tree, led by former Fox executives Uday Shankar and James Murdoch, is one of the principal backers of Viacom18.
The ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup is significant to Disney. According to a 53-page internal PowerPoint acquired by TechCrunch, the global streamer has told marketers that it can reach over 50 million concurrent viewers throughout the competition and 82% of India’s total annual video consumers during the almost 50-day series.
