June 9 (Reuters) – Walt Disney Co’s ( DIS.N ) Hotstar will offer free streaming of cricket tournaments in India to mobile devices, following rival JioCinema’s success in raking in millions of viewers with a similar strategy in the crazy country from cricket.
Hotstar on Friday said it would offer the Asia Cup and ICC Men’s World Cup tournaments at no cost to users.
JioCinema had offered free streaming of the Indian Premier League (IPL), one of the world’s highest-grossing annual sports properties, after securing the internet rights from Hotstar.
The broadcasting joint venture of Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries ( RELI.NS ) said it had reached a record 13 billion digital views in the first five weeks of the tournament, with each viewer spending an average of an hour per match.
Research firm CLSA has estimated that Hotstar’s subscriber base shrank by nearly 5 million users after it lost the IPL rights.
As JioCinema prepares to start charging users for content, its executives have said that the IPL broadcast will continue to be offered free of cost.
Cricket is the most popular game in the world’s most populous nation, where most digital consumption is driven by smartphones with around 700 million users.
“If continued for the longer term, free cricket offers could magnify losses for streaming platforms or lead to consolidation, as many platforms may not be able to survive with lower revenue per user,” it said. Elara Capital analyst Karan Taurani.
With high content costs and strong competition in digital advertising, freemium – a combined revenue model that relies on both subscription fees and ad sales – is the best way to go for steaming platforms in India , Taurani added.
Reporting by Munsif Vengattil in New Delhi and Priya Sagar in Bengaluru; editing by Janane Venkatraman, Jason Neely and Sriraj Kalluvila
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