Walt Disney Co’s Indian platform Hotstar decides to live stream the upcoming Asia Cup 2023 and ICC ODI Cricket World Cup 2023 for FREE to all mobile phone users accessing the streaming application.
Hotstar Decides to Stream 2023 ODI World Cup for Free
The 13th edition of the ICC Cricket World Cup is scheduled to host by India between October 5 to November 19.
The decision to lift the paywall comes after Hotstar lost the streaming rights for the cash-rich Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournament to Reliance Industries’ Jio Cinema earlier this year.
Research firm CLSA has estimated Hotstar’s subscriber base shrank by nearly 5 million users after it lost the IPL rights. Jio Cinema, which made the tournament free to watch, clocked a record 1.47 billion digital views in the first weekend of the tournament.
While JioCinema is preparing to start charging users for content, its executives have said IPL streaming will continue to be offered at no cost.
Cricket is the most popular game in the world’s top populous nation, where the bulk of digital consumption is driven by smartphones with an estimated 700 million users.
“If continued over the longer term, free cricket offerings may magnify losses for streaming platforms or lead to consolidation, as many platforms may not be able to survive with lower revenue per user,” Elara Capital analyst Karan Taurani said.
With hefty content costs and strong competition in digital ads, freemium – a blended revenue model that relies on both subscription fees and ad sales – is the best way to go for steaming platforms in India, Taurani added.
