Ashish Ranjan
Disney+ Hotstar’s streaming of the World Test Championship 2023 final between India and Australia on the first two days of the match reached a peak concurrency of approximately 15 lakhs on June 9th, 2023.
The average global live audience for the most-anticipated Test cricket championship is around ten lacs. During the recently concluded IPL, JioCinema reached a concurrency apex of 3.21 crore, the highest of any streaming platform ever.
According to a recent announcement, Disney+ Hotstar will no longer charge for forthcoming cricket tournaments such as the Asia Cup and ICC Cricket World Cup 2023. JioCinema’s strategy of preserving sports, including the IPL, free of paywalls has been a tremendous success.
Disney is currently catching up to industry trends as the viewership shifts from linear to digital television. During the recently concluded IPL, digital streaming was far more popular with advertisers than linear television.
Disney+ Hotstar’s decision to offer free sports programming follows the loss of 8.4 million paid subscribers following the loss of the digital rights to the IPL. Thursday’s ET report indicates that the loss of HBO content from Disney+ Hotstar is also affecting its premium subscriber base.
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India are in trouble in the WTC Final, trailing Australia by 318 runs at the conclusion of Day 2 while chasing Australia’s mammoth target of 469 runs. Earlier in the game, Steve Smith and Travis Head’s centuries helped propel Pat Cummins and his team to a great total, while their bowlers also performed admirably by sending five Indian batsmen back to the pavilion by the end of Day 2. It remains to be seen whether India will be able to catch up on the third day of the mega match.
