Christine McCarthy, SVP and CFO, Disney, addressed analysts during the Q3 conference call With Disney+ seeing a slower subscriber addition in the US, Disney+ Hotstar is turning out to be the saviour for the American media & entertainment conglomerate. For the third quarter ending June, Disney+ Hotstar comprised close to 40% of Disney+'s global subscriber base of 116 million. This means that Disney+ Hotstar had close to 46.4 million paid subscribers in Q3, compared to 34.67 paid subscribers in Q2 for the period ending March. This is an addition of close to 11.73 million subscribers, largely due to the presence of the Indian Premier League (IPL). Disney+ Hotstar contributed almost 1/3rd subscribers to Disney+'s overall base of 104 million in Q2. For the first quarter ending December 2020, the streaming platform had 28.47 million paid subscribers. "We ended the third quarter with 116 million global paid subscribers to Disney+, up from approximately 104 million in the second quarter. Disney+ Hotstar accounted for the majority of our net subscriber additions between Q2 and Q3, making up a little less than 40% of our total Disney+ subscriber base as of the end of the third quarter. However, subscriber growth was also solid at our core Disney+ markets, excluding Disney+ Hotstar, with total quarter-over-quarter net adds in those markets consistent with net adds from Q2," Christine McCarthy, Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Disney, told analysts during the Q3 earnings conference call. She further stated that Disney+'s overall ARPU this quarter was $4.16. Excluding Disney+ Hotstar, the ARPU was $6.12 or an increase of about $0.50 versus the second quarter. The ARPU increase reflects a benefit from the recent price increases, both domestically and abroad. "Disney+ Hotstar ARPU also increased from Q2 to Q3 due to higher ad revenue per subscriber, reflecting the roughly four weeks of IPL matches that were played in Q3 versus none in Q2," McCarthy said. She also noted that results at international channels declined due to higher programming and production costs, partially offset by higher advertising revenue. "Both of these factors were impacted by the return of live sporting events and, in particular, the Indian Premier League, which held cricket matches from April 9 until the season was postponed on May 4 versus no matches in the prior-year quarter due to COVID-19." While IPL is extremely important for Disney+ Hotstar, it is just one component of the streaming platform's content offerings. "When you think about Disney+ Hotstar, IPL is certainly a very, very important component of the offerings, but it's only one because we also have a very broad portfolio of general entertainment as well as other sports. It has a lot of original content -- library content in it from all of the Disney+ brands and IP. And we added over 18,000 of original local programming every year," she added. McCarthy said Disney feels "really good about not only the IPL but also Star -- Hotstar+". Reiterating the previous guidance about Disney+ Hotstar, she said that the platform is anticipated to contribute between 30% and 40% of total Disney+ subscriber base. "We're not updating that guidance at this point," she stated. During the quarter, Disney+ Hotstar was launched in Malaysia and Thailand in Q3.