Disney+ Hotstar’s streaming of the World Test Championship 2023 final between India and Australia has reached a peak concurrency of around 15 lakhs in the first two days of the match.
The average live viewership for the world’s most anticipated test cricket championship is in the tens of thousands.
During the recently concluded IPL, JioCinema had the highest concurrency of any streaming platform, reaching 3.21 crore.
According to a recent announcement, Disney+ Hotstar will now keep upcoming cricket tournaments such as the Asia Cup and the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 free of charge.
JioCinema’s strategy of keeping sports, including the IPL, free of charge has already proven to be a huge success.
Disney is now catching up with industry trends as viewers shift away from linear TV and towards digital.
During the recently concluded IPL, digital streaming outperformed linear TV in terms of advertisers.
The decision by Disney+ Hotstar to offer free sports streaming follows the loss of 8.4 million paid subscribers as a result of losing the digital rights to the IPL.
According to a report in ET on Thursday, the loss of HBO content from Disney+ Hotstar is also affecting its premium subscriber base.