Good Morning Dear MMS Reader,
The Olympics are over (sigh!). And while India is currently showering its medallists with cash rewards, free air and bus tickets, and luxury cars, the euphoria will soon die down. Very soon, Indians will be back to gushing over their favourite sport, cricket.
The Indian cricket team is already playing a series in England. And next month, some of the best cricketers from around the globe will descend upon the United Arab Emirates to play the remainder of the 2021 season of the most popular cricket league in the world, the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Today's story is about one company that's got a lot riding on the IPL—Disney+ Hotstar. The IPL generates 50% of the video streaming platform's ad revenue in India. This season, it expects to make US$100 million from IPL ad sales. The tournament is so popular that some brands plan their entire annual ad strategy around the six-week tournament.
But as Disney+ Hotstar prepares for the IPL, it's also looking ahead. The five-year IPL rights deal, which Hotstar's parent Star India had purchased for a record US$2.5 billion in 2017, will expire at the end of the 2022 season. And the Walt Disney Company, which acquired Star India and Hotstar in 2017 (via its purchase of 21st Century Fox's TV and media assets), is expecting strong competition during the next rights bid. From giants like Facebook, Amazon, and possibly even Reliance Industries, India's largest conglomerate.
Here's where things get interesting. Mumbai Multimedia Studio found out through his reporting that Disney+ Hotstar is planning for the worst—that it could lose the IPL rights. What will it do if that happens? That's what today's story is about. Disney+ Hotstar provided a few hints last month when it revamped its subscription plans and announced a slate of new original shows. We dug deep into Disney+ Hotstar's possible post-IPL survival plan to follow