Disney+ Hotstar, the service offered in India and certain Southeast Asian countries, lost 6% paid subscribers, to 57.5 million in December from 61.3 million in October 2022. Disney+ lost 1%, about 2.4 million, of total paid subscribers, between October and December 2022. This is the streaming platform’s first ever decline since its launch more than three years ago.
Last year, Disney+ Hotstar, the digital platform catered to India and Southeast Asia, lost its crown jewel– the digital streaming rights of Indian Premier League (IPL)—to Viacom18, which is owned by Mukesh Ambani-run Reliance Industries (RIL). India’s biggest sports league was responsible for millions of concurrent views and traffic on Disney+Hotstar. But now the firm is experimenting with multiple strategies to retain and attract new users, including creating longer format shows.
At the moment, Disney+Hotstar competes with Netflix and Amazon Prime in India. It offers a whole host of content including daily soaps across Hindi, Tamil, and Bengali, among other local languages, movies from domestic, international and its own studio, and sports content.
Globally, streaming players including Netflix, and Disney, have been under pressure from Wall Street to show profits, reduce spending, and also keep users hooked to their platforms. Robert Iger, who left his chief executive officer (CEO) seat at Disney, in February 2020, left Bob Chepak in charge. But the board reinstated ousted Bob and reinstated Robert, in November 2022, to turn the cash bleeding streaming ship around.
This is the new CEO’s earnings result since his reinstallation at The Walt Disney Company.
“After a solid first quarter, we are embarking on a significant transformation, one that will maximize the potential of our world-class creative teams and our unparalleled brands and franchises,” said Robert A. Iger, CEO, The Walt Disney Company.
Disney’s income from continuing operations before income taxes increased to $1,773 million (in Dec 31, 2022) to $1,688 million (in Jan 1, 2022), a difference of 5%. Total revenue was $23,512 million, in December, while in October $21,819 million, marking an 8% increase.
The North American and Canadian subscriber base remained constant at 46.4 million, while the international markets’ based increased by 2%, excluding Disney+Hotstar.
“We believe the work we are doing to reshape our company around creativity, while reducing expenses, will lead to sustained growth and profitability for our streaming business, better position us to weather future disruption and global economic challenges, and deliver value for our shareholders,” said Iger.
