World Cup 2023 Final: Disney+ Hotstar registers new live viewership record
World Cup 2023 Final: Disney+ Hotstar registers new live viewership record
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Disney+ Hotstar registered a record high of 5.9 crore concurrent viewers during the Cricket World Cup final between India and Australia at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Sunday.
India vs Australia World Cup Live
The monumental high came about in the 10th over of Australia’s chase of 241 runs. It went past the previous high of 5.3 crore live viewers registered during the semi-final between India and New Zealand on 15 November.
The streaming service is offering free viewership of the World Cup matches in non-HD format. The service has also been offering free ad-supported streaming option for the World Cup and previously the Asia Cup. The move comes after JioCinema had streamed the matches of the Indian Premier League (IPL) for free as well.
World Cup 2023: News | Schedule | Results | Points table
“Making the Asia Cup and ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup available to a wider audience, we believe, will help us grow the overall ecosystem,” said Sajith Sivanandan, head of Disney+ Hotstar, while announcing the move for free streaming in June 2023.
Disney+ Hotstar has been struggling to contain its subscriber losses, seeing 23.7 million paying subscripers depart in a year. The service’s overall subscriber base has dropped to 37.6 million for the quarter ended September 2023, from a high of 61.3 million in October 2022.
The decline in subscribers can largely be attributed to Disney+ Hotstar losing its biggest retaining content to Viacom18’s JioCinema. IPL and HBO content have now moved to JioCinema.
In the match itself, India scored 240 runs and started well with the defence. David Warner, Mitchell Marsh and Steve Smith departed rather cheaply to go 47/3. But Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne steadied the ship after. Australia are targeting a record sixth World Cup title.
