Bob Iger, CEO of Disney, has said that the company would like to stay in the Indian market, even as Disney+ Hotstar, the video-on-demand service, had been losing subscribers over the last one year. The 72-year-old media veteran, who was recalled from retirement last year and reinstated as CEO of Disney said it was carefully considering its options in India as the linear television business, led by Star India, continues to do well.
The statements come as the company is said to be in talks with potential buyers for its India streaming and television business, including with Reliance-backed Viacom18, with the deal value pegged at an estimated $10 billion, according to Bloomberg.
“In India, our linear (TV) business actually does quite well. It’s making money. But we know that other parts of that business are challenging for us. I’ve said this before that we’re considering our options there. We have an opportunity to strengthen our hand. It is the most populous country in the world, or maybe just still second to China and about to pass them. We’d like to stay in that (India) market. But we also are looking to see whether we can strengthen our hand, obviously, improve the bottom line,” Iger said during an earnings’ call on Thursday.
The US-headquartered company said it lost 2.8 million Hotstar subscribers in the quarter ending September 30, 2023, touching 37.6 million paid users versus 40.4 million subscribers in the July quarter. This is a 7% drop sequentially and the fourth straight quarter of decline for the over-the-top (OTT) platform. Disney follows an October to September accounting year.
A year ago, Disney+ Hotstar had a paid subscriber base of 61.3 million, implying that the company had lost close to 39% of its user base in the last four quarters, as the OTT platform lost the rights to the Indian Premier League (IPL) as well as premium English content through its deal with Warner Bros Discovery for 144 HBO originals, including shows such as Games of Thrones and Succession in April.
Iger said that the restructuring of the company that he had put in place over the last few months had enabled efficiencies and savings.
“We’re on track to achieve roughly $7.5 billion in cost reductions, which is approximately $2 billion more than what we targeted earlier this year,” Iger said on the investor call.
The company reported net income of $264 million, for the fiscal fourth-quarter ended September 30, up from a net income of $162 million, during the year-ago period. Revenue increased 5% to $21.24 billion in the quarter under review, just short of estimates, which called for revenue of $21.33 billion for the period.
Disney’s direct-to-consumer (DTC) segment, which comprises all its streaming services, narrowed its losses to $420 million for the quarter, from $1.4 billion in the same quarter last year. Revenue from the segment increased 12% year-on-year to $5.04 billion for the quarter from $4.49 billion in the year-ago period.