Why Is Disney Offering Free Cricket Streaming?

India has the biggest fanbase for cricket in the entire world. The cricket economy in India is bigger than that of all other countries combined. No wonder that the broadcasting rights in this country for major cricketing tournaments are some of the hottest things to go on sale. But the latest trend by streaming platforms raises a few questions behind their business strategy.

Disney-Reliance is controlling a monopoly over broadcast rights when it comes to cricket in India. Reliance signed a deal of $3 billion with Disney India to take over the business. Even though it stands as the single biggest player in the arena, it continues to offer free streaming of important cricketing tournaments to users.

This move of the company has surprised everyone as after the merger, it was expected that tournaments like world cup and IPL will need subscription to stream. However the company is still relying on an ad based revenue system instead of charging the viewers.

The revenue generated during the ICC tournament is huge but still it is nowhere near what the broadcasting rights cost the company. It is expected that the company is going to make a loss in the next 4 years because of the high broadcasting fees.

So why are they choosing this model of operation? Experts believe that platforms want to attract subscribers and giving these freebies in long run can help the streaming platform build a bigger subscriber base which will ultimately benefit the company.