IPL 2021 Remaining Matches – Disney+ Hotstar Revenues: Disney+ Hotstar during the earning call has declared that the IPL 2021 suspension and possible rescheduling will have huge impact on advertising and subscription revenues. The Walt Disney Company Senior Executive Vice President and CFO Christine McCarthy told analysts during the earnings call that Disney+ Hotstar revenues in India will be impacted by decision of when and where IPL 2021 Phase 2 gets relocated.
“About half of the 60 IPL matches that were expected to be played this season have already taken place. So you’re looking at the back half, 30 games to be played. So sure, if they were able to successfully relocate the tournament, we would hopefully see an impact, especially on advertising. And so there would be a positive what we’re expecting. It would be better than if there were no rescheduled,” she explained.
At the same time, company expects fewer net sub adds in the second half of the year given the COVID-related suspension of the IPL season and the decision to move the Star+ Latin America launch to the fourth quarter.
“The other thing that’s going to happen here is with the absence of the IPL games in India, that will also have an impact on advertising revenue. So you could see a decrease in the ARPU and the subs in India if that plays out like we just said” McCarthy said.
Also Read: IPL 2022 New Teams: BCCI set to postpone tender plans for new teams for few months
It is worth noting that Disney’s financial calendar runs from 1st October to 30th September.
IPL 2021 Remaining Matches: Disney+ Hotstar declares, ‘IPL 2021 suspension and rescheduling decision will have impact on revenues’
IPL’s impact on Disney+ Hotstar Revenues: Q2 ad rev takes a hit even as subs base swells to 34.67 mn
According to McCarthy Disney+ Hotstar’s revenue ad revenue took a hit in the JFM quarter due to the timing of IPL matches and the impact of COVID-19. Ad de-growth notwithstanding, the platform continues to add subscribers at a very brisk pace. Disney+ Hotstar comprised 1/3rd of Disney+’s 104 million paid subscribers in Q2. This means that Disney+ Hotstar had 34.67 paid subscribers in Q2 compared to 28.47 million in Q1 for the quarter ended December 2020. The platform, which is available in India, Indonesia, and Singapore, had added 6.2 million paid subscribers in Q2.
“We had almost 104 million Disney+ paid subscribers at the end of the second quarter,” The Walt Disney Company Senior Executive Vice President and CFO Christine McCarthy told analysts during the earnings call.
“Between Q1 and Q2, Disney+ Hotstar was the strongest contributor to net subscriber additions, making up approximately one-third of the total Disney+ subscriber base as of the end of the second quarter. However, ARPU at Disney+ Hotstar was down significantly versus the first quarter due to lower advertising revenue as a result of the timing of IPL cricket matches and the impact of COVID in India. As a reminder, the majority of the prior IPL tournament took place in fiscal Q1, and there were no games in Q2. The current IPL tournament began on April 9 in fiscal Q3 and was suspended last week, given the COVID situation in India.”
Disney+’s overall ARPU was $3.99 in Q2. Excluding Disney+ Hotstar, it was $5.61. McCarthy expects Disney+ APRU to improve during the fiscal due to price increase globally. “We remain right on track to reach our fiscal 2024 guidance of 230 million to 260 million subs, powered by the addition of 30 million paid Disney+ subs in the first half of the year.”
IPL 2021 Remaining Matches: Disney+ Hotstar declares, ‘IPL 2021 suspension and rescheduling decision will have impact on revenues’
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