Disney + reported 118 million paying subscribers worldwide, so Hotstar users are estimated to be around 43.6 million. For the April-June quarter, Disney + reported 116 million paying subscribers, including 46 million from Hotstar.

Figures for Hotstar also include users in Malaysia and Thailand, where the service launched earlier this year, as well as India and Indonesia where it already had a presence.

“Disney + Hotstar subscriptions were down from the previous quarter and represented approximately 37% of our total Disney + paid subscriber base at the end of the fourth quarter. The ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) for Hotstar on a quarterly basis linked from Q3 to Q4 of this year, has declined, and this is due to lower ad revenue per subscriber as there have been fewer IPL matches ( Indian Premier League) this year. In the fourth quarter, there were only 18, and the number was about 29 in the third quarter, ”said Christine Mccarthy, senior executive vice president and chief financial officer of Disney, on a conference call on results. Mccarthy added that the attraction of content in India goes beyond IPL to other general entertainment properties.

Overall, Disney + ‘s global subscriber base grew 60% in this fiscal year ended in September. The service aims to be profitable by 2024, the company said. Average monthly revenue per paying subscriber for Disney + increased from $ 4.52 to $ 4.12 due to a higher mix of Disney + Hotstar subscribers in the current quarter compared to the previous year quarter, the company said in a statement.

Novi Digital Entertainment Private Limited, which runs Hotstar, now part of Walt Disney India, reported a net loss of Rs. 601 crore for fiscal year 2020-21, an increase of 66% over the previous fiscal year , according to data viewed by business intelligence platform Tofler last month. In addition, the turnover for the year amounts to ??1,704 crore, a 5% jump from last year, while total expenditure for the year was reported in Rs. 2,305 crore.

Disney CEO Bob Chapek said during the earnings call that the company, which has nine theatrical releases slated for the first quarter of fiscal 2022, has preached flexibility in terms of making decisions about distribution so as she is recovering from the pandemic and in the mix of consumer behavior change.

“The extent to which we’ve had a number of theatrical titles will eventually go to Disney +, but what we’re seeing is some recovery in the theatrical show market, which is a good thing, not only for Disney but also for the industry, and because most of the franchises we’ve had were built through the movie theater distribution channel. At the same time, we are looking closely at different types of movies to see how the different data demographics of this market are coming back, ”Chapek added.