Disney+ will hit user targets with or without IPL, says CEO

NEW DELHI: Disney+ Hotstar, the video streaming service that has owned the broadcast rights to the Indian Premier League for the past five years may soon look beyond the marquee sports tournament for traction in India.

Bob Chapek, the company’s CEO said while the cricket tournament is an important property and the company will do everything to extend the rights, it hopes to achieve subscriber targets of 230-260 million globally by 2024 even without IPL.

“Sports is a very important strategic offering for us because the fandom and passion is so deep. If you look at India, we’re certainly going to try to extend our rights on the IPL. But we’re very confident that even if we were not to go ahead and win that auction, we would still be able to achieve our 230 to 260 (million subscriber target),” Chapek said during an earnings call on Thursday. “While the IPL is an important part of the Disney+ Hotstar content offering, it’s really one component of a broader portfolio of entertainment and sports. In addition to the original and library content from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars and National Geographic, our Disney+ Hotstar offering does have a massive collection of local content, and we add over 18,000 hours of original programming every year,” he said.

Chapek added, “While certainly it’s an important component, the local content that we’re developing really will mitigate the impact if we were not to win the auction on IPL. It’s not like we see that business evaporating if we don’t get it.”

Chapek’s comments on the IPL come at a time when the competitive landscape in Indian sports broadcasting is set for a major churn. The launch of a sports vertical by RIL-backed Viacom18 and Amazon Prime Video’s interest in sports will queer the pitch for IPL rights.

“IPL is one of the three marquee cricketing rights which has played a pivotal role in building scale for Disney+ Hotstar. Upcoming bids for the rights will be competitive; retaining it thus remains challenging,” said Mihir Shah, VP at MPA consultancy.

Disney+ added 2.6 million subscribers in Q3 to hit a total of 45.9 million subscribers in India.