2023 Cricket World Cup: Disney Hotstar sets streaming record with 35 million viewers for India vs Pakistan
- Disney paid $3 billion for rights to ICC events in India
- All matches can be streamed for free on your mobile phone
Disney Hotstar’s coverage of the 2023 Cricket World Cup match between India and Pakistan became the most streamed event in history, with 35 million concurrent viewers watching in 14 hours.th march.
This figure broke the previous record of 32 million viewers set by Viacom18 for the presentation of the Indian Premier League (IPL) final between Gujarat Titans and Chennai Super Kings.
The high viewership for both matches can be attributed to the fact that both matches were streamed for free on the respective broadcasters’ streaming platforms on mobile phones in order to increase advertising revenue.
This year’s Men’s Cricket World Cup will be held in India for the first time since 2011, when matches were dispersed across the subcontinent, and Disney has signed a contract with the International Cricket Council (ICC) as the linear and digital rights to World Cricket. The company has paid as much as US$3 billion. both this time and in his 2027 edition of the contest.
The tournament will begin on October 5 and will consist of 48 matches, culminating in the final on November 19 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
Sports professionals say…
With a population of over 1 billion people, India represents a huge market for rights holders and broadcasters. However, Indian consumers are reluctant to pay for premium content as the pay TV market is relatively small compared to the population.
Less than 250 million households in India have access to television, but there are more than 1 billion active mobile subscriptions. Disney had hoped that advances in connectivity availability and quality, as well as premium rights to cricket, would help Hotstar reach 100 million subscribers.
However, by losing the IPL digital rights to Viacom18, Disney has hemorrhaged 20 million Hotstar subscribers and also missed out on matches involving the Indian national team.
But by replicating Viacom’s free streaming experiment, Disney hopes to attract more consumers to its ecosystem, generate advertising revenue and improve the financial performance of its India operations ahead of a sale. .
