Streaming giant Walt Disney has faced deep losses in its India streaming business in the recent past, which has forced the company to take some drastic measures to revive its fortunes in one of the world’s biggest markets.
The company has come up with a fresh strategy to revive its streaming business in India by offering free cricket on smartphones, reported news agency Reuters
Disney has been on a losing run in India as the country ’s streaming operations posted a loss of $41.5 million on revenue of $390 million for the year to March 2022, as per its last disclosed results.
The Burbank-headquartered entertainment giant ’s financial performance in the country expected to worsen further, with accelerated subscriber exits that slashed its user base by a third between October 2022 and July 2023.
It may noted that Disney acquired streaming service Hotstar when it paid $71 billion for some 21st Century Fox Global assets in 2019
Disney plans to stream Asia Cup matches live from August 30 as well as the World Cup in October-November on smartphones for free. This could provide a much-needed boost to its subscriber base as it would enable 600 million smartphone users in the country to stream these matches.