Star Sports, the Indian Premier League host broadcaster, has chosen to take an instant hit to achieve a major long-term goal.
It was not an easy decision to let go of the lure of instant monetary gains. More so, when the broadcast industry is reeling under the adverse economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. But the Walt Disney Company-owned Star India has decided to take around ₹ 150 crores to ₹ 200 crores hit in the Indian Premier League sponsorship and advertisement sales income for the Disney+ Hotstar.
The decision to offer the IPL 2020 LIVE streaming and other shows only to the paid subscribers of the Disney+ Hotstar VIP and Disney+ Hotstar Premium will result in a considerable fall in the viewership. Star India has made a strategic decision to take the punt when it was in a position to make gains on the strength of the last season’s IPL audience data on Hotstar.
The IPL 2019 had registered a cumulative 300 million viewers on Hotstar. The 18.6 million peak concurrent audience during the final between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings is a record for streaing of any LIVE sports event in India.
Star India, however, is eyeing a much bigger conversion from the upcoming 13th edition of the cash-rich league, which starts on Saturday (September 19) in Abu Dhabi with the match between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings.
DISNEY+ HOTSTAR EYES TO BE MARKET LEADER
Star Sports is pressing hard to increase the paid subscriber base of the Disney+ Hotstar on the strength of the IPL content. The free offerings of a deferred live, or five-minute LIVE action for no subscription has been scrapped. If that were not enough, partner mobile service providers that offered IPL LIVE streaming with their data packages have been directed to keep the free content offering limited only to the highest ₹ 2,000 per month packages.
There is a clear emphasis that a fan will have to subscribe to the Disney+ Hotstar for watching IPL LIVE on the move.
Star India is seeing an opportunity to become the OTT market leader in India. It is not ready to miss that even if the target is achieved at the cost of a fall in the eyeballs, which is resulting in lower ad sales rates for IPL LIVE streaming.
“Star is seeing IPL as an opportunity to establish a clear lead over Amazon and Netflix in the Indian OTT market. It was a well-calculated, strategic move to restrict the IPL streaming only to the paid subscribers,” a source close to the development has confirmed to SportzFront.
DISNEY+ HOTSTAR NOT FAR BEHIND
Disney+ Hotstar is not far behind market leaders Amazon. The Walt Disney Company-owned OTT platforms, according to reports, had grown its subscriber base in India to 8.63 million by the end of the second quarter, ending June 30.
It will need a little push to surpass market leader Amazon Prime, which as per available data as of June 30, 2020, had touched the 10-million milestone in India. The report also revealed that 30% of its users buy Amazon Prime for videos instead of e-commerce shopping.
Netflix in India stays out of the leadership race. It had 2 million paid subscribers by the end of 2019 fiscal. According to a Financial Express report, the video streaming platform has registered a 65% growth in the number of paid subscribers during the first two-quarters of the current fiscal. This puts the Netflix subscribers’ number by the June end at approximate 3.5 to 3.7 million.
Disney+ Hotstar is well poised to ride the IPL wave to achieve its goal of the No. 1 position in the OTT market.
The Indian cricket fan deprived of quality LIVE cricket content will tune in to IPL in big numbers. Star India will be looking for a little push in subscription numbers.