The Walt Disney Company CEO, Bob Chapek, said the company is trying to extend its media rights to the Indian Premier League in the upcoming auction, but the company remains confident that the subscriber base will continue to expand with or without the coveted sports property.
In the post-earnings investor call for Q1FY22 Chapek told investors, “we’re certainly going to try to extend our rights on the IPL. But we’re very confident that even if we were not to go ahead and win that auction, we would still be able to achieve our 230 to 260 million subscriber base. So it’s an important component for us around the world. Obviously, really important in India, but not critical to us achieving the 230 to 260 number that we’ve guided to.”
While sports continues to be a prime mover in the Indian entertainment market, especially in the streaming space, according to Chapek it is really one component of a broader portfolio of entertainment and sports. “In addition to, obviously, the original content and the library content from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars and Nat Geo, our Disney+ Hotstar offering does have a massive collection of local content, and we add over 18,000 hours of original programming every year. So, while it’s an important component, that local content that we’re developing really will mitigate the impact on us if we were not to win the auction on IPL,“ Chapek explained. Therefore the Disney CEO does not see their business in the Indian market evaporating in the absence of media rights to the premier cricketing franchise.
According to Christine McCarthy, CFO, Walt Disney Company, the company also saw resumption of growth in Disney+ Hotstar markets with 2.6 million paid subscriber additions in the quarter.
The media space is gunning for major restructuring in 2022, with the upcoming merger of Sony and Zee, as well as the auction of major cricket properties, including IPL, likely to threaten Disney Star’s supremacy. With cricket being the prime mover in the media and entertainment space, the upcoming IPL auctions are generating interest from everyone, including Amazon, Sony-Zee and Facebook. Market watchers expect that the bidders will be ready with a Rs 40,000-crore auction purse.