Star to stream IPL matches on Hotstar.com
MUMBAI: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Tuesday awarded the global Internet and mobile rights for the Indian Premier League (IPL) to Novi Digital Entertainment, a unit of Star India, for Rs 302.2 crore for a three-year period ending 2017.
This time around, Star will stream the matches live on its newly launched Video On Demand (VOD) platform hotstar.com. In the last season, the matches were streamed at Star India’s sports VOD venture starsports.com, which works on paid subscription. While IPL 7 recorded 64 million video views on starsports.com, the broadcaster is expecting a jump of 50 per cent or more in the numbers this year.
Starsports.com streams numerous sports event live and exclusive, which includes marquee football tourneys like Barclays Premier League, La Liga, FA Cup. The sports VOD platform will also stream ICC cricket world cup matches live.
Speaking to Indiantelevision.com, a source from Star India said, “Pepsi IPL rights has been primarily bought for Hotstar. We formally launched Hotstar a week ago and its already above Whatsaap and Facebook in play store top free list. The VOD platform has drama, movies and sports and I am sure it is the next big thing.” The source added, “We are yet to decide whether we will stream IPL 2015 on Starsports.com.”
The decision to stream the matches on Hotstar.com indicates Star’s will to promote the venture. IPL is one of the biggest sports event in the calendar and would be the apt platform for Hotstar’s promotion.
In a first for India, Indya Interactive Services (which runs Hotstar.com) earlier premiered the Star Guild Awards 2015 on the video on demand service on 17 January. The award function was aired on Star Plus a day later on 18 January.
