Disney+ Hotstar To Provide Free Streaming Of Asia Cup 2023 And ICC Men's Cricket World Cup For Mobile Users

Disney+ Hotstar on Friday announced that Asia Cup 2023 and ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup will be made available as free-to-view to all users accessing their platform on mobile phones.

This move comes after Disney+ Hotstar's rival platform JioCinema streamed the Indian Premier League (IPL) for free.

After record-breaking viewership by Disney Star in IPL 2023, Disney+ Hotstar has decided to lift the paywall for its mobile users specifically for these two matches, Outlook reported quoting an official release by Disney+ Hotstar.

With this, more than 540 million mobile users across India will now have access to watch Asia Cup and ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup for free, as per the company.

Disney+ Hotstar lost 4.6 million, or 46 lakh subscribers, in the fourth quarter of FY23, according to CLSA Ltd.

"We believe Disney+ Hotstar subscriber loss and ARPU fall have been caused due to loss of Indian Premier League digital rights starting 2023," the note said on May 11.

The BCCI and ICC officials who are presently in London for the World Test Championship Final are expected to finalize the schedule and venues for the World Cup in the next few days before it is circulated to the member/participating countries, PTI reported on June 6. The World Cup is scheduled to be held in India from October to November.

Meanwhile the fixtures for Asia Cup 2023 scheduled to be held in September are yet to be released. On June 6, PTI reported that Asia Cup hosts Pakistan may pull out of the tournament as it has no option left after Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan backed out of their proposed ‘Hybrid Model’.