IPL 2024

‘Free rehta toh itna loss nahi hota’ – Fans react as online streaming site loses over 2 crore subscribers after losing digital rights for IPL

The streaming platform had lost the rights of streaming IPL 2023 to Jio Cinema.

Aug 10, 2023 1:22 pm

The emergence of Jio Cinema during the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 has been good for the audience, as they could watch the entire season of the Indian Premier League for free with good quality streaming, with different angles, and commentary of languages of their own choice. The audience loved the streaming quality, which was different from the previous seasons of the IPL.

As the rights of streaming were sold to Jio Cinema over Disney+ Hotstar, the latter sustained a huge loss in the number of subscribers they had. IPL 2023 has been the biggest reason for the loss of subscribers. But the loss of subscribers has not been new for the streaming platform. It has been happening since October 2022.

In November 2022, Jio Cinema streamed the FIFA World Cup 2022 for free on their platform in India. As a result, Football fans subscribed to Jio Cinema. Thereby, the number of subscribers started to reduce for Disney+ Hotstar in India. The numbers began to reduce gradually till the Indian summer when Jio Cinema rose to its peak with the streaming of the IPL 2023.

IPL 2023 and HBO losses humble the streaming platform

While IPL 2023 was a body blow for Disney+ Hotstar, their end of association with HBO was another mighty blow. The association with HBO provided a lot of subscribers for the streaming company. As HBO parted ways with Disney+ Hotstar, the number of subscribers went downhill manifold. In the last 3-4 months, Disney+ Hotstar has lost over 1.25 crores of subscribers.

According to the reports, Disney+ Hotstar has lost a lot of its paid subscribers since October 2022. In the period October-December 2022, the platform lost over 38 lakh paid subscribers. Further from January to March this year, the platform lost over 42 lakh paid subscribers. From April to June 2023, the platform lost a whopping 1.25 crores of paid subscribers. From October 2022 to June 2023, the streaming platform has lost more than 2 crores of its paid subscribers.

Here’s how the fans reacted to the news –

Jio distroyed hotstar

— Pawan Shukla (@Shukla9_) August 10, 2023

Ambani effect. 🤑

— Waѕiyullah Budye (@WasiyullahB) August 10, 2023

Jio has done same to Hotstar , what It did to Vodafone in telecom

— AB (@ArpitBnsl) August 10, 2023

People bought hotstar subscription mostly for cricket

Series wagera toh telegram pe mil jate🤣
No IPL no paid subscribers

— Shivani (@meme_ki_diwani) August 10, 2023

https://twitter.com/koliesque/status/1689510762304196608?s=20

Great 😃

— Ayush (@vkkings007) August 10, 2023

https://twitter.com/Satwik_45/status/1689508428224647168?s=20

I am one of them 😂

Reason is not ipl or cricket
Reason is, I used to get hotstar subscription as part of jio recharge but since it is removed now, no more hotstar 🤣

— Se7en MysTery (@Dream11Teamer) August 10, 2023

https://twitter.com/Thalastan7/status/1689509642874044416?s=20