and that has proved to be the case. Rather than pursuing new subscribers at any price, Disney+ Hotstar is pivoting towards a focus on profitability and increasing ARPU , the Ampere study says.ending its licensing deal with Warner Bros. Discovery in March
and not bidding for rights to distribute Paramount and NBCU titles in India. All three Hollywood studios’ content are now on Ambani’s JioCinema platform instead. The Ampere study says that to support ARPU growth, Disney+ Hotstar also needs to review its partnership deals with mobile telcos and encourage direct subscription. Currently, it has distribution deals with Ambani’s Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone where some mobile or broadband customers have free access to Disney+ Hotstar. These bundling deals increase service adoption and support reach for ad sales, but negatively impact subscription ARPU. Disney+ Hotstar’s ARPU was just $0.
Orina Zhao, senior analyst at Ampere Analysis said: “With India set to keep its position as the world’s third largest SVOD market after the U.S. and China with an expected growth to 180 million subscriptions in 2027, it is important for Disney+ Hotstar to balance its content expenditure and subscription retention and acquisition.