What are the best ways to watch cricket in USA !!

 

According to this huffingtonpost article, there are over 15 million cricket fans in North America with large majority being Asian Indians. If you grew up in India (like me) or any other country in the subcontinent, you would have loved and followed cricket like a religion at some of time in your life. After moving to US, my passion for cricket hasn’t faded and I still watch/follow every cricket series India plays in. If you are looking for the best ways to watch cricket in USA, here are some of the options I know of:

  • Sling TV – Sling TV is one of the official partner of Willow. You can subscribe to Sling’s International Sports package (priced at $5 per month on an annual plan or $10 per month) to watch willow TV channel live. Sling TV has good support for various different mobile and IPTV platforms like iOS, Android, XBOX, roku etc. They also feature ‘Willow TV Extra’ channel which streams live matches if there are more than one matches being played simultaneously. You can subscribe to their “International Sports” package here. They have a 7-day free trial that you can sign up for before deciding to subscribe from them. If you are a cricket fan like me and would probably watch most of the cricket series of India throughout the year, you can subscribe to their annual package which amounts to $5per month only.

Sling TV DOES NOT have rights for ‘England in India Series 2021’.

         

  • Hotstar USA: Hotstar launched their service for USA/Canada region recently and they have acquired rights to all the important cricketing events for next year or so (2020-2021). India in Australia 2021 (exclusive), VIVO IPL 2020 (in UAE) and India in South Africa 2021.  They offer only annual plans as of now priced at $49.99 per year. It includes all STAR channels, Star Original content along with sports content (including kabaddi, hockey etc). Their app is currently available on Apple TV, chromecast, Roku, iOS and Android devices. You can use the coupon code CMP9596 to avail 10% discount on annual package. You can reach out to us at desicompile@gmail.com if you have any questions.

If you are looking to watch ongoing ‘Englands tour of India Series Feb-Mar 2021’, subscribe to HOTSTAR USA. They have exclusive rights for telecast of this series in USA.

Upcoming matches:

                        – England in India

– VIVO IPL 2021

  • Willow TV – Willow TV owns right to telecast cricket in USA and Canada for majority of the cricket series played across the world. They have an online website (www.willow.tv) as well as apps for various different platforms for streaming live cricket stream in HD quality. Its a monthly subscription based service with no contracts or lock downs. Their subscription costs $10 per month (in US) and includes support for iOS, Android and Windows 8 app. You can alternatively also choose to use their app on roku, chromecast, Samsung TV, Google TV or many other IPTV platforms. The stream quality is HD with pretty good reliability. I have used them myself and was quite pleased with their performance. They do not have easy cancellation option online and one has to reach out to them via email/phone to cancel the services.

Willow TV DOES NOT have rights for ‘England in India Series 2021’.

Upcoming matches:

                         – SA tour of Pakistan 2021

                        -Australia tour of South Africa 2021

  • Watch ESPN – In recent years, WatchESPN has acquired rights for telecasting few cricket series in North America region (including All Stars Series in USA, IPL season, cricket in England, cricket in West Indies etc). WatchESPN is the digital platform owned by ESPN corp which is the leading sports content provider in USA. Apart from few series (like IPL, world cup), most of their content is free at no additional cost. They too have good support for online live stream on their website as well as IPTV platforms like roku, XBOX, Samsung TV and others. However, their coverage is quite limited to handful of series in a year. To know more about the cricket schedule, read here.
  • YuppTV – They are the latest entry into race to acquire cricket rights for US region. In 2016, they acquired rights for India vs WI series and used their Yupp TV platform to live stream the matches. Their subscription cost was $8 for the entire series. It will be interesting to see how they compete with Willow and ESPN in future.
  • Willow Partner channels – Willow has partnership with almost all of the TV providers in USA. If you are already subscribed to any one of them, you can add Willow TV channel at a premium ranging from $3 to $15. Few of their partner TV providers are DirectTV, DishTV, Xfinity, FIOS etc. You can read more about them here.

Few tips & tricks:

  • In my experience, Willow + WatchESPN covers almost all of the cricket series played across the world. I would sign up with either Sling or Willow and use watchESPN for their free content.
  • Willow TV is priced at $7 CAD for Canada region unlike $15 for US.
  • Subscribe to Willow’s youtube channel. They post highlights along with replay videos once the matches are over for free.
  • Stay away from free illegal streaming sites. They have very poor video and streaming quality. It gets quite frustrating when the stream dies during a crucial part of the match.
  • BCCI’s official website www.bcci.tv posts video bits of India’s matches, players and experts. You can watch them here or like their facebook page where they post ‘behind the scenes’ videos of players and matches.

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2 thoughts on “What are the best ways to watch cricket in USA !!”

  1. Useful post; many thanks. Is there any news on who will be broadcasting England home internationals this summer (2018), beginning with England v. Pakistan? It is not showing up on Watch ESPN’s schedule, nor on Willow. Many thanks!

    Reply
  2. The following is my experience of watching Indian Cricket in the US.
    I have found, in the US, you will need Willow TV to watch Cricket matches played between India and another team that are being played outside of India. You will need ESPN+ to watch matches played in New Zealand. By the way, you used to be able to get cricket matches played in New Zealand for free through ESPN 3. It appears ESPN has figured out that they can charge for these matches and now sells them on ESPN + on a subscription basis. Furthermore, you will need Hotstar to watch cricket matches played in India. Apparently, now you will need Yupp TV to watch Indian teams matches played in the West Indies.

    Reply

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