After The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) lost out on its bid to extend streaming rights for the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournament for the next five years, it could lose up to 20mln subscribers.
The big streaming prize for the IPL was won by Viacom18, a joint venture between Reliance Industries, Paramount, James Murdoch and former Disney executive Uday Shankar, which paid a reported US$2.6bn.
Disney+ HotStar, the name for its streaming service in the country, provides more than 40mln subscribers out of the 137.7mln on the Disney+ service worldwide as of the second quarter of this year.
The US company did agree to pay US$3bn to screen matches on terrestrial TV, however, according to a report from the FT, and could still bid for a smaller package to stream around 18 matches.
IPL broadcast rights have been owned by the 'House of Mouse' since the takeover of Rupert Murdoch's Fox in 2019 and are seen as a major driver of subscribers for Disney+ Hotstar.
Group chief executive Bob Chapek predicted in late 2020 that the company would raise its subscriber count to 260mln in four years.
However, losing out to Viacom18 could lose Disney as many as 20mln subscribers, according to a forecast from Media Partners Asia forecast to Bloomberg.
Last week the company fired its senior TV content executive, with Chapek receiving the backing of the board.