Disney+ India launch postponed
Disney said on Friday that it is postponing the launch of its eponymous streaming service in India after the biggest local attraction, cricket tournament Indian Premier League (IPL), was rescheduled due to the coronavirus outbreak.
The company, which is launching the streaming service through its local streamer Hotstar, did not immediately have a new launch to share, but said the rollout was only being “briefly paused.”
“We recently announced that Disney+ would launch in India through the Hotstar service in conjunction with the beginning of the Indian Premier League cricket season,” said Uday Shankar, President of The Walt Disney Company APAC and Chairman of Star & Disney India, in a statement.
“Given the delay of the season, we have made the decision to briefly pause the roll-out of Disney+ and will announce a new revised premiere date for the service soon,” he added.
Disney said last month that it would roll out Disney+ in India on March 29. But the company started to test the service with a small group of users earlier this month. Last week, the company also cancelled a press briefing on Disney+’ India plans citing concerns over the disease.
The IPL cricket tournament, which sees more than 60 games played over a period of seven to eight weeks, is by far the biggest attraction on Hotstar. The tournament is so popular in India that it has helped Hotstar set streaming records. Last year, the service said more than 25 million viewers simultaneously watched a game.
The service had amassed over 300 million monthly active users and 100 million daily active users during the tail end of the IPL season last year. Sources familiar with the matter have told TechCrunch that after the IPL season, Hotstar’s user base plummets below 60 million.
The commencement of the thirteenth season of the tournament, which was originally supposed to kickstart on March 29, has been postponed to April 15.
Disney said on Friday that it is postponing the launch of its eponymous streaming service in India after the biggest local attraction, cricket tournament Indian Premier League (IPL), was rescheduled due to the coronavirus outbreak. The company, which is launching the streaming service through its local streamer Hotstar, did not…
