As soon as we thought that things were getting better for Disney+Hotstar, it started to worsen. This is precisely the case now, as Hotstar has also lost the streaming rights of ISL.
Yes, after IPL streaming rights, HBO content, and F1 Racing streaming, it is ISL now. This is just too concerning for the platform. Although Hotstar lost a significant number of subscribers in the last nine months, they are still leaps and bounds ahead of any other OTT platform in sight.
Regardless, for the 2023-24 edition of ISL, the streaming rights would rest with the obvious anti-thesis JioCinema.
And it is not a surprising deal. The deal for streaming rights was for ten years, but seeing the viewership numbers decline, the parent companies of ISL took this major step.
Reliance Industries owns 65% of the ISL through its subsidiary FSDL. Thus, it was obvious that JioCinema would be the only competitor of Hotstar if the streaming rights went away.
But for the football fans, there is good news. You will now be able to watch ISL for free, obviously with ads.
Although fine, there were some massive problems in the streaming of IPL. Let’s hope it goes flawlessly on JioCinema.