In June 2023, a bombshell announcement broke through the Indian streaming market airwaves. Disney+ Hotstar lost the battle for the coveted Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket rights to Vicaom18, a venture majority-owned by billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance, in partnership with Paramount. Disney previously held streaming and TV broadcast exclusive rights for India’s most popular sporting tournament. It now only has the latter for the cost of about $3 billion, which the broadcaster’s head sports exec, Sanjog Gupta, said was seen by half a billion people. Despite its TV success, the loss of the immensely popular cricket championship would surely equate to Disney+ Hotstar’s fall from grace, the casual observer would believe, yet a freshly published study by Ampere Analysis finds…