The India-Pakistan cricket match contributes to Disney’s Hotstar setting a global streaming record. Few events in India draw as much interest as a cricket match. A high-profile match between rivals India and Pakistan provided a much-needed reprieve for Disney’s Hotstar. That has lost over 20 million subscribers in the last three quarters. And whose officials are expected to increase their search for a buyer for its India operations soon.
On Saturday, Disney’s Hotstar recovered the global on-demand video streaming record, with 35 million concurrent viewers watching a cricket match. The figure exceeds the previous record of 32 million viewers established by Viacom18’s JioCinema. The platform is financed by Mukesh Ambani, Asia’s richest man. That record, like several others set by Hotstar in the last five years, was for the streaming service.
As it tries to compete with Viacom18, which outbid Disney for five-year streaming rights to the IPL cricket tournament and has quickly surged in popularity. “We’d like to thank everyone who tuned in to watch the India-Pakistan game on Disney+ Hotstar.” “It is because of your passion for the game that Disney+ Hotstar was able to break all previous records across all cricket formats and reach a peak concurrency number of 3.5 crore viewers,” said Sajith Sivanandan, Head of Disney+ Hotstar India, in a statement.
“As the cricketing rivalries continue, we will honor our commitment to providing an unrivaled viewing experience to all of our users.” We hope to have many more such moments as the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup progresses.”
Reclaiming the vanity metric is a comfort for Disney, which is looking for a buyer for Star India, which owns Hotstar. Top Indian executives are likely to fly to Disney’s US headquarters. Shortly after the ongoing cricket World Cup concludes next month, according to two people familiar with the situation. The company has undertaken early discussions with a few companies, notably the Indian behemoth Reliance.