Written by Chris Albrecht
Posted Thursday, September 25, 2008 at 8:32 AM PT

 

Watch Cricket on Willow TV

Game day in the U.S. usually means a bottle of Bud and football on the television for a few hours. But for Willow TV’s million registered users across the globe, it means cracking open a Kingfisher, firing up the PC and enjoying literally a day’s worth of Cricket.

Founded in 2003, Willow TV gradually acquired the rights from international cricket boards to stream matches live online. By 2007, through a combination of deals, the site carries 90+ percent of the cricket matches live. It’s registered user base of more than a million people lives predominately in North America, with 25 to 30 percent of the broadband audience outside the continent.

Willow TV provides livestreams of cricket matches on a pay-per-view or subscription basis, with packages starting around $5 up to $200. The company offers multiple bit streams, 700 Kbps and 400 Kbps, and plans to offer a 1MB stream next year as well.

And when fans sit down to watch Willow TV, they make themselves comfortable. According to company co-founder Vijay Srinivasan, on a match day, the average user spends four to five hours on the site, which isn’t that hard to believe once you realize cricket matches go on for eight hours.

Srinivasan says that the company has been profitable pretty much since it started, which may explain why Reliance ADA, the largest media company in India, plunked down $60 to $70 million this month for a 75 percent stake in Willow TV and to expand its operations (how much went to the acquisition and how much is for expansion was not disclosed).

Reliance wants to expand Willow TV’s reach beyond the PC and onto set-top boxes like the Apple TV, the Verismo box or the Roku (but not cable co. or satellite set-top boxes).

Willow’s expansion couldn’t have come at a better time as the cricket business is booming. A shorter version of cricket called Twenty20 that condenses the games from eight hours down to four is catching on, and earlier this month ESPN coughed up $900 million for the global rights to the Twenty20 Champions League.

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Comments & Trackbacks

  1. [...] NewTeeVee: The return of Monday Night Football not doing it for you? Get your cricket fix online via Willow TV. [...]

    GigaNET: Willow TV, Cadmium, Mobile Tech - GigaOM on September 25th, 2008 at 10:24 am - Permalink

  2. As Much as I love the Cricket I wish Willow was Advertisng Supported and Not subscription based and as a ex-pat Aussie I prefer to crack open a Coopers ;) .I watch the cricket streams available as indexed from http://www.myp2p.eu/

    Matt_ on September 25th, 2008 at 11:50 am - Permalink

  3. Actually Chris, a game of cricket can last upto 5 days.

    Duncan on September 25th, 2008 at 3:47 pm - Permalink

  4. Dancan is Right…. January in Australia when many Aussie’s have their Summer Holidays (Vacation) is known as a month when theres alot of Test Cricket and nothing gets done .

    Matt_ on September 25th, 2008 at 7:17 pm - Permalink

  5. Willow.tv is so expensive. TVNSports.com has much better streams and packages for 90% cheaper than willow. It is a big hit since everyone wants to save money these days.

    There service is really great. I am watching Ind vs Aus from them at the moment and it is god quality.

    Just $8 for the whole series!!! Willow charge $60!!!!!!

    TVNsports on October 18th, 2008 at 11:50 pm - Permalink

  6. I have been searching around for ages about %keyword%, and i am happy that I found your post %title% it has given me some great ideas to do some work at home. Thanks again.

    Satellite Tv Packages on November 6th, 2008 at 6:02 pm - Permalink

  7. Am I the only one having problems with willow.tv?

    My share of problems;

    1) The second T20 game between SA-Aus replay showed the first T20 for days after the game. It took repeated e-mails to their tech support group to fix it.

    2) Yesterday when I was watching the first 50 over ODI, when SA was 2228/7 the video blanked out tll the game was over. I missed the most crucial part of the game. Still no reply from willow.tv as to what happened. There is no number to call. Once they take your money, it looks like we are at their mercy.

    Has anyone else run in to this problem?

    Shimoga Srinath on January 17th, 2009 at 11:30 am - Permalink

  8. [...] TV. It was a big money-maker for global television broadcasters. In the U.S., the games were broadcast over the Internet by Willow.tv. This year, cricket fans can also watch the games on IPL’s official web site, where nearly [...]

    Watch the Cricket IPL Tourney Online Via Silverlight on April 17th, 2009 at 3:37 pm - Permalink

  9. [...] TV. It was a big money-maker for global television broadcasters. In the U.S., the games were broadcast over the Internet by Willow.tv. This year, cricket fans can also watch the games on IPL’s official web site, where nearly [...]

    Watch the Cricket IPL Tourney Online Via Silverlight [NewTeeVee] | BYOHosting.com Blogs on April 17th, 2009 at 8:20 pm - Permalink

  10. i want to see live match tonight oakistan vs australia tell how and where i am waiting by

    azhar goraya on April 24th, 2009 at 12:06 am - Permalink

  11. This review is not entirely correct – willow is broadcasting cricket at 290kbps and the video size is tiny – 320×240 – make it full screen its pretty bad quality (much worse and old youtube videos). Cannot compare to watching on tv at all, esp. for the price they are charging. Maybe in the future they will improve

    cricketer on April 29th, 2009 at 7:45 pm - Permalink

  12. [...] Search and watch live and on-demand video, including headline sports, entertainment and events. Watch Cricket on Willow TV Kaboodle – Welcome to Willow TV review and product info . Learn more about Welcome to Willow [...]

    willow tv | Most Popular Daily Trends, News, Searches on June 21st, 2009 at 8:25 am - Permalink

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