12 IPL Matches for Free : Are you a cricket fan living in rural India? Have you always been disappointed because you can’t afford the premium TV channels that show the Indian Premier League matches? Well, here’s some great news for you! Star Sports, India’s largest broadcaster, is taking a leaf out of Viacom18’s book and broadcasting 12 IPL matches for free on its free-to-air channels, including Star Utsav Movies.
Why is Star Sports doing this?
To stay in competition with Viacom18, which announced that it will stream the entire IPL 2023 live for free on its JioCinema platform in 4K ultra HD. This is the Jio moment of sports broadcasting that is set to disrupt the market.
But Star Sports has its own strategy. By taking select IPL games to FTA, it aims to give an unserved audience cohort the opportunity to sample the top-quality content that Star Sports presently makes available only to its Pay TV subscribers. As income and aspiration levels grow among these FTA viewers, Disney Star expects that many of them will transition to Pay TV, helping this universe grow further from its current base of 168 million connections (BARC Data).
So, what are the IPL matches that you can watch for free on Star Utsav Movies?
Here’s the list of 12 IPL Matches for Free: Star Sports Brings Cricket Fever to Rural India
- Rajasthan Royals vs Chennai Super Kings
- Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Mumbai Indians
- Delhi Capitals vs Sunrisers Hyderabad
- Kolkata Knight Riders vs Punjab Kings
- Chennai Super Kings vs Royal Challengers Bangalore
- Mumbai Indians vs Rajasthan Royals
- Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Kolkata Knight Riders
- Punjab Kings vs Delhi Capitals
- Chennai Super Kings vs Kolkata Knight Riders
- Mumbai Indians vs Punjab Kings
- Rajasthan Royals vs Sunrisers Hyderabad
- Delhi Capitals vs Royal Challengers Bangalore
This is the first time since buying the TV rights of the Indian Premier League five years ago that Disney Star is telecasting 12 of the matches on its free-to-air channel Star Utsav Movies. And this is also the first time that IPL will be aired on Free Dish. The move is expected to give a big boost to Disney Star’s viewership in the rural market.
But it’s not just Star Sports and Viacom18 who are trying to win the IPL viewership battle. Sports18 has announced that it will stream IPL 2023 in 11 regional languages including Bhojpuri, Tamil, Bengali, Malayalam, and Gujarati among others. The matches will be available free on the Jio app in 11 different languages.
India’s favorite sports league helped Disney+Hotstar reach over 6 cr subscribers.
— Groww (@_groww) February 24, 2023
But Jio’s entry challenges to forever change the OTT landscape.
Why is Jio streaming IPL matches for free? A thread🧵 pic.twitter.com/n4dq3E10rD
if you’re a cricket fan living in rural India, you don’t have to miss out on the excitement of IPL 2023. Thanks to Star Sports, you can watch 12 IPL matches for free on Star Utsav Movies. So, gather your friends and family and enjoy the cricket fever!
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