October’s gone already; and in two months, we’ll be in 2024! Like the start of every month, we’re back with our monthly report for October for streaming behemoth, Disney Plus Hotstar.
2023 has proved to be a momentous year for Disney Plus Hotstar; not in a good way, though. 2023 has seen Disney Plus Hotstar struggle on several fronts – loss of important properties such as HBO and the IPL, loss of subscribers, dwindling revenues, and more. To add to Disney Plus Hotstar’s woes, the all-important property of cricket is also out of its hands. Rival Jio Cinema has grabbed the streaming rights for all cricketing events that the Indian cricket team will be a part of, starting from just after the ICC Men’s World Cup 2023.
Interestingly, Disney Plus Hotstar has managed to keep the momentum alive in India, with interesting shows, exciting licensed films, and of course, cricket! First the Asia Cup proved to be Disney Plus Hotstar’s saviour in September. And the ICC Men’s World Cup 2023 had viewers flocking to Disney Plus Hotstar in October, to watch the thrilling cricket matches this season.
October has proved to be an excellent month for Disney Plus Hotstar, riding on the back of the popular ICC Men’s World Cup 2023, which has brought spectacular success for Disney Plus Hotstar this month. Twice, the platform hit records for concurrent viewers for a live streaming event. First it was 3.5 crores or 35 million viewers for the India – Pakistan match. Next, the India – New Zealand shattered that record too, bringing in a stunning 4.3 crore (43 million) peak concurrent viewers watching the thrilling match.
Other than cricket, almost all of Disney Plus Hotstar original shows did OK in viewership, and poorly, in terms of quality. Malayalam show Masterpeace, Telugu series Mansion 24, Tamil series Mathagam Part 2, Hindi series Sultan Of Delhi, and celebrity chat show Koffee With Karan Season 8 premiered on Disney Plus Hotstar this month.
Surprisingly, Disney Plus Hotstar didn’t have any licensed film releasing in October, save for King Of Kotha in Hindi.
Read our report on Disney Plus Hotstar to find out how well or how horribly did it do in the month of October.
Please note that we cover only Indian content in our monthly reports for Indian OTT platforms.
Here’s our October report for Disney Plus Hotstar –
Indian Original Web Series –
In October, Disney Plus Hotstar released not one, not two but an impressive five Indian Original series, in myriad languages. Sultan Of Delhi and Koffee With Karan Season 8 in Hindi, Mansion 24 in Telugu, Mathagam in Tamil and Masterpeace in Malayalam. Most turned out to be average. Koffee With Karan Season 8 Episode 1 proved to be an exception. With Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone as guests, the episode was a superhit.
Indian Original Films –
Disney Plus Hotstar did not have a single Indian Original film release this month.
Licensed Films –
Disney Plus Hotstar premiered only one licensed title this month, and that too King Of Kotha’s Hindi version. The Malayalam version already premiered on Disney Plus Hotstar in late September.
Specials –
Disney Plus Hotstar is currently streaming the ICC Men’s World Cup 2023, which has proved to be a superhit for the platform. The cricket tournament shattered records, clocking in eye-popping viewing numbers for most matches, especially the ones with India in it. The spectacular records were also made possible due to Disney Plus Hotstar’s strategy of streaming the matches absolutely free on the Disney Plus Hotstar mobile app.
Original Series –
Sultan of Delhi – Hindi series – Flop
Koffee With Karan Season 8 – Hindi chat show – Super-Hit
Mathagam Part 2 – Tamil series – Semi-Hit
Mansion 24 – Telugu series – Semi-Hit
Masterpeace – Malayalam series – Flop
Licensed Films –
King Of Kotha – Hindi film – Hit
Specials –
Cricket – ICC Men’s World Cup 2023 – Super-Hit
Scoring –
Superhit – 2 points
Hit – 1 point
Semi-hit – 0.5 point
Flop – 0 points
As per the above, the score for Disney Plus Hotstar in October is 6/7, which gives it a success score of 85.71% for the month of October – which is quite impressive!
So October turned out really good for Disney Plus Hotstar. November promises to be equally good, what with the Cricket World Cup finals, Aarya 3 and more.