Hotstar accounted for roughly 37% of Disney+’s overall subscriber base at the end of the September quarter, according to Disney+, the company’s video streaming service.
According to Disney+, which has 118 million paid customers worldwide, Hotstar users number roughly 43.6 million. Disney+ had 116 million paid customers in the April-June quarter, with 46 million coming from Hotstar.
Hotstar users come from Malaysia and Thailand, where the service began earlier this year, as well as India and Indonesia, where it was already available.
“As of the conclusion of the fourth quarter, Disney+ Hotstar subscribers had declined compared to the previous quarter, accounting for around 37% of our overall Disney+ paid subscriber base.” Hotstar’s ARPU (average revenue per user) declined from Q3 to Q4 this year, owing to reduced per subscriber advertising revenue due to less IPL (Indian Premier League) matches this year.
“There were just 18 in Q4 and roughly 29 in Q3,” Disney’s senior executive vice president and chief financial officer, Christine Mccarthy, said during an earnings call. Mccarthy went on to say that the appeal of content in India extends beyond the IPL to other forms of popular entertainment.
In the fiscal year that concluded in September, Disney+’s global subscriber base increased by 60%. The service is expected to be profitable by 2024, according to the business. Due to a higher mix of Disney+ Hotstar customers in the current quarter compared to the prior-year quarter, the average monthly revenue per paying subscriber for Disney+ declined from $4.52 to $4.12.
According to data received by business intelligence platform Tofler last month, Novi Digital Entertainment Private Limited, which controls Hotstar, now a part of Walt Disney India, projected a net loss of Rs. 601 crore for FY 2020-21, a 66 percent rise from the previous fiscal year. Furthermore, income for the fiscal year was Rs. 1,704 crore, up 5% from the previous year, while total expenses for the fiscal were Rs. 2,305 crore.
At the same time, we’re keeping a close eye on different types of films to see how different demographics of that market respond,” Chapek explained.
