Disney+ Hotstar revenues have shot up in 2020 thanks to the Covid-19 impact, and IPL 2020 led push.
While the COVID-19 pandemic has been the cause for a huge loss for cinema halls and public events, streaming platforms have seen an exponential rise in the number of users. Novo Digital Entertainment, Disney+Hotstar’s parent company, has seen a surge in revenue for the financial year of 2020. Additionally, the company’s net losses have also narrowed during this time.
Novi Digital’s revenue shot up from Rs 1123 crore in the previous year to Rs 1628 crore in 2020, per Tofler, a business intelligence platform. Also, the loss narrowed from Rs 554.38 crore to Rs 361.8 crore despite the company’s expenses growing from Rs 1677 crore in 2019 to Rs 1990 crore.
According to Star Sports’ Head Sanjog Gupta, the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 season witnessed record viewership. The Star Sports Network and Disney+ Hotstar provided the live telecast and live streaming respectively of the IPL 2020 season. Numerous fans took to the video-on-demand platform to catch live action from the T20 tournament, aiding to the profits of the company. During the IPL cricket season, the platform added about 7.5 million paid subscribers.
Additionally, with Disney+ launching in India in collaboration with Hotstar, the subscribers also increased. The increase in the subscriber base also reflected in revenue that shot up to Rs 618.79 crore from Rs 466.64 crore in 2019. The company’s expenses were mostly in licensing fees that leapfrogged from Rs 493.84 crore to Rs 722.53 crore in 2020. As a result, total operating cost increased from Rs 969.63 crore to Rs 1383.30 crore in 2020.
With over 400 million downloads from Google’s Play Store and Apple’s App Store, Disney+Hostar continues to be one of the most popular apps in India. The 2021 IPL auction live streaming will also be made available on the Disney+Hotstar app and website.
