Hotstar leads the pack in video streaming services
Hotstar on Monday announced it had seen a record 100 million active users in a single day during the recent India vs Pakistan match in the ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup 2019. It recorded 15.6 million concurrent viewers, and 66 percent of the total Hotstar reach was witnessed from towns beyond the big metros. The India vs Pakistan match was held on June 16 and the 100 million daily active user mark was a new milestone for the platform. To recall, the OTT platform Hotstar broke records by registering 18.6 million concurrent viewers in the Vivo Indian Premier League (IPL) 2019 final last month.
The India vs Pakistan match marked a 1.7x increase in average concurrency on Hotstar compared to any other India match so far, the company said in a statement. The streaming giant also registered record-breaking concurrency of 15.6 million viewers, the highest ever for an ODI match. As we mentioned, this is not the highest concurrency figure for Hotstar, with that achievement held for the IPL 2019 final in May, which saw 18.6 million concurrent viewers.
Varun Narang, Chief Product Officer, Hotstar said in a statement, “We are delighted to have been able to deliver an uninterrupted cricket watching experience to such a large audience at once. Having achieved a single day platform reach of 100 million demonstrates the indisputable technology prowess that Hotstar brings to the OTT industry. This remarkable achievement has helped us set a new viewership benchmark.”
Among the video streaming services, Hotstar leads the pack in Counterpoint’s latest report, thanks to its sports content and content partnerships, followed by Amazon Prime Video and SonyLiv. Netflix ranked fourth, and it was joined by Voot, Zee5, ALTBalaji, and Eros Now at spots from five to eight, respectively. Indians under the age of 35 years account for 89 percent of the country’s total video streaming platform users, the Counterpoint report claimed.
In other Hotstar news, BSNL’s newly announced Superstar 300 broadband plan, priced at Rs. 749, is bundling the Hotstar Premium subscription. The plan offers 300GB of high-speed data at 50Mbps per month.