iWorld
Decoding the influence of IPL 2020 on Disney+Hotstar’s paid subscriber base
KOLKATA: Most of the Indian sports enthusiasts consider cricket as their religion. The upcoming season of the Indian Premier League will not only overwhelm the audience but will fill the void which has been due to the absence of major cricket tournaments in the last few months. There is no doubt that the official broadcaster Star Sports’ viewership will witness a rise during the league, but how Disney+Hotstar will benefit from it in terms of paid subscriptions is something to watch out for..
The media giant Walt Disney Company, which owns Hotstar after the acquisition of 21st Century Fox, planned a grand entry of its streaming service Disney+ in March. Utilising the fandom for IPL, the company decided to integrate it with Hotstar to exploit the existing users. The pandemic had forced them to launch it in the absence of the cricket showbiz. However, despite all the odds, the platform has been able to garner 8.63 million subscribers as of 30 June. Now, most of the experts believe IPL is going to boost the number further.
SBICap Securities institutional equity research head Rajiv Sharma is of the opinion that all the content available at this moment is on
predictable lines despite having differentiated storytelling, but live sports are completely off the shell. “Earlier, IPL used to have at least some competition with other cricket tournaments before or after the event. The dearth of enough good events may lead to a 2x-3x increase in viewership and brand participation for IPL,” adds Sharma.
Sharma, who is highly optimistic about IPL’s impact on Disney+Hotstar subscriber base, says that the number of new subscribers coming because of IPL will be 50 per cent higher as compared to earlier years. Moreover, the retention rate after the event will be 20-30 per cent higher; thanks to the library of Disney+.
Elara Capital VP – research analyst (media) Karan Taurani states that the platform’s viewership will be negative this season. According to him, TV viewership will increase at a much higher rate as most of the people will be at home during the matches. He adds that he does not see any fresh subscribers coming to the platform for IPL specifically.
Mirum India joint CEO Sanjay Mehta differs from Taurani’s view. Mehta opines that lockdown has accustomed viewers to consume content through OTT services. According to him, many people have now formed a habit of enjoying OTT services on Smart TVs or using devices like Chromecast to enjoy it on a large screen. Coupled with the starvation of premium cricket events or other
live sports, the new trends of consumption will benefit Disney+Hotstar subscription directly.
He says the focus should be on highlighting the fact that Disney+Hotstar gives access to a huge amount of other premium content along with IPL.
“Prima-facie, the decision to move IPL streaming to a premium account will see a decline in the overall digital audience. While I believe the core IPL fans will stick to Hotstar or the ones who don’t have a subscription may get onto the platform for the duration of the event. So we may see a spike for sure in short-term,” Isobar India COO Gopa Kumar comments. Notably, Jio has introduced new packs of Rs 499 monthly and Rs 799 quarterly plans giving access to Disney+Hotstar, which makes it clear that any Jio users will not enjoy IPL at zero cost this year.
As the majority of people will be at home, there might be a slight dip. However, owing to single TV per household phenomenon at
many places, you may see people logging in Disney+Hotstar to watch IPL,” he adds.
Kumar thinks the platform will come up with a marketing campaign for IPL very soon. According to him, the engagement story, the real-time response from the audience and interactive formats will be the key narrative of communication.
iWorld
Meta plans 8,000 layoffs in new AI-led restructuring wave
First phase from May 20 may cut 10 per cent workforce amid AI pivot.
MUMBAI: At Meta, the future may be artificial but the cuts are very real. The social media giant is reportedly preparing a fresh round of layoffs, with an initial wave expected to impact around 8,000 employees as it doubles down on its artificial intelligence ambitions. According to a Reuters report, the first phase of job cuts is slated to begin on May 20, targeting roughly 10 per cent of Meta’s global workforce. With nearly 79,000 employees on its rolls as of December 31, the move marks one of the company’s most significant workforce reductions in recent years.
And this may only be the beginning. Sources indicate that additional layoffs are being planned for the second half of the year, although the scale and timing remain fluid, likely to be shaped by how Meta’s AI capabilities evolve in the coming months. Earlier reports had suggested that total cuts in 2026 could reach 20 per cent or more of its workforce.
The restructuring comes as chief executive Mark Zuckerberg continues to steer the company towards an AI-first operating model, committing hundreds of billions of dollars to the transition. Internally, this shift is already visible: teams within Reality Labs have been reorganised, engineers have been moved into a newly formed Applied AI unit, and a Meta Small Business division has been created to align with broader structural changes.
The trend is hardly isolated. Across the tech sector, companies are trimming headcount while investing aggressively in automation. Amazon, for instance, has reportedly cut around 30,000 corporate roles nearly 10 per cent of its white-collar workforce citing efficiency gains driven by AI. Data from Layoffs.fyi shows over 73,000 tech employees have already lost jobs this year, compared with 153,000 in all of 2024.
For Meta, the move echoes its earlier “year of efficiency” in 2022–23, when about 21,000 roles were eliminated amid slowing growth and market pressures. This time, however, the backdrop is different. The company is financially stronger, generating over $200 billion in revenue and $60 billion in profit last year, with shares up 3.68 per cent year-to-date though still below last summer’s peak.
That contrast underlines the shift underway. These layoffs are less about survival and more about reinvention. As Meta restructures itself around AI from autonomous coding agents to advanced machine learning systems, the question is no longer whether the company will change, but how many roles will be left unchanged when it does.
