BackIndia now accounts for 15% of Disney+'s global subscriber base
The impressive subscriber growth has also pushed Disney to announce plans to launch an international direct-to-consumer general entertainment offering under the Star brand in calendar year 2021
PremiumNEW DELHI : The covid-19 lockdown may have devastated businesses across the globe but Disney+ Hotstar, the video streaming platform owned by media and entertainment conglomerate Walt Disney, in India has notched up 15% of the VoD (video-on-demand) platform’s global subscriber base by the end of its third quarter. Disney+ had a paid subscriber base of 57.5 million at the end of Q3, which has grown to 60.5 million as of 3 August, 2020, the company said. That effectively makes for around 9 million paid subscribers in India.
Hotstar rebranded itself to Disney+ Hotstar with the launch of the latter in the country this April.
“Disney+'s overall ARPU (average revenue per user) this quarter was $4.62. However, excluding Disney+ Hotstar, it was $5.31. At Star, higher results reflect lower programming costs, partially offset by lower advertising revenue," Christine McCarthy, senior executive vice-president and chief financial officer, the Walt Disney Co. said in an earnings call.
Both of these drivers reflect the absence of cricket in the third quarter including a shift in rights costs for the Indian Premier League (IPL), McCarthy added. The company expects this to be recognized in future quarters with the tournament slated for September in the UAE.
The impressive subscriber growth has also pushed Disney to announce plans to launch an international direct-to-consumer general entertainment offering under the Star brand in calendar year 2021. This will be directed at the Asia Pacific market.
“Mirroring the strategy we successfully pursued with Disney+, the offering will be rooted in content we own from the production engines and libraries of ABC Studios, Fox Television, FX, Freeform, 20th Century Studios and Searchlight," Bob Chapek, Disney CEO, said during the earnings call. “In many markets, the offering will be fully integrated into our established Disney+ platform from both a marketing and a technology perspective, and it will be distributed under the Star brand which has been successfully utilized by the company for other general entertainment platform launches, particularly with Disney+ Hotstar in India."
The fact that Disney+ is growing as rapidly as it has both domestically and globally, clearly demonstrates the value of its content, Chapek added and through the addition of the Star-branded general entertainment offering, the company is further extending the value of that content internationally.
In India, Disney+ Hotstar has taken advantage of the covid-19 pandemic to acquire seven Bollywood titles including Akshay Kumar’s Laxmmi Bomb, Ajay Devgn’s Bhuj: The Pride of India and Alia Bhatt’s Sadak 2 last month, in what is estimated to be a ₹400-crore deal. Busting the myth that big-ticket films are not going to digital platforms, the move will help cement Disney’s library as a formidable force among the clutter of foreign and local players, media experts say.
Disney also announced that its epic action adventure Mulan that has postponed its theatrical release several times owing to the pandemic will start streaming in markets including the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand and a number of countries in Western Europe, beginning September 4. However, the film will simultaneously release in theatres in countries where the VoD platform isn’t available and where cinemas are open.
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