Disney+ Hotstar is suffering an outage for some users in India amid a popular cricket match, drawing criticism from customers at a time when the Disney crown jewel is already facing several setbacks in the South Asian market.
It’s unclear what caused the issue, which Hotstar acknowledged as “unforeseen technical issues” in its apps and on the web. Domain registrar records show that Hotstar renewed the domain name, Hotstar.com, on February 17. If Disney had briefly lost ownership of the domain, it would take some time for the new change to be reflected for all users.
DownDetector, a web reliability monitoring service, reported a sudden increase in the volume of complaints about Hotstar on Friday. Dozens of users on social media also noted that they were unable to use the app on their phones and desktops.
A Hotstar spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The outage comes amid the ongoing top-flight cricket tournament between India and Australia. Hotstar, one of India’s most popular video streaming services, recently lost the streaming rights to the popular IPL cricket tournament, which analysts say could upend its customer base in the country.
The company is also reportedly set to lose the rights to broadcast HBO shows in the country, according to Deadline.
