The world cup is around the corner. I still haven't purchased any coverage. I don’t have a satellite dish. So I have to buy the online streaming option. The online streaming option is handy as I can watch it anywhere I have access to the internet. Way back in 1999 or 2000 Doordarshan started streaming the cricket matches in India for free. I remember watching a match on internet in which Hemang Badani guided us to win. Later Williow.tv took the mantle of bringing cricket on Internet. This is a good thing. They were dedicated to their work. And I was one of the loyal customers for a year or so. Soon the price for the matches / or series was getting expensive. So sometime back in 2002/2003 I asked Prem Panicker to start a live video stream on Rediff it self. But Prem wanted to become the voice of the cricket lovers instead. My primary concerns then were the price and quality. To which I got a response from willow's director, courtesy Prem. The summary of the email was the Willow can get the content and lower the price if people like me start to support it. Four years later, the quality of the content is more than acceptable to naked eye.  With a streaming speed upwards of 384 Kbps , the picture is decent if not HD quality. But the price remains a big issue

I would like to pay half the price of the current offering on Willow ( $ 199.00). The pricing to my knowledge is too high. Lately there are so many streaming websites mushroomed on the net, offering the same world cup for a third of the Willow's charge. I can understand that Willow has to pay their dues to the likes of Direct TV or Dish. But if the price is not cheaper I cannot buy from Willow.
I did my math and calculated that for the entire year coverage it costs me around $ 400 with Willow (this is not including WCup). The same coverage I can get from anyone of these streaming sites for about $ 150. Who with the right mind pays an extra $ 250.00 for Willow unless the person is interested in interactive scorecard. Which I think is superb, and the way of the future. Imagine yourself digging into cricinfo archives and click on the scorecard to see the action !!!!!!!!!!.  I am a big fan of Willow, but the price has to come down. They can have more customers by cutting the price. Besides they can challenge the secondary industry of illegal streamers and be competitive. To me the problem lies with DISH / Direct TV. These two giants want people to buy DISH so that they can sell more programs to the household. So they are charging high fees for Willow. Poor willow has to pass the buck to the customer. Or is it the greedy cricket board that is asking too much for the broadcast rights?

Finally, here is the summary.

·        I love Willow streaming and interactive score card and love to patronage them.

·        I don’t like Willow’s pricing.

·        There is a big illegal industry of cricket streaming that’s making millions ( I have to verify this )

·        Dish and Direct TV are charging way too much money for cricket broadcast.

·        Indian board is not seriously looking into helping the prices comedown for internet broadcast. They should sell the rights directly to Willow TV.

·        Technology is such a thing, it can easily be copied. Its only matter of time these streaming sites will give a quality video even with interactive scorecard.

·        If the prices won’t fall then all of the stakeholders (The Willows, The DISH, Direct TVs and The BCCI or ICC) will loose, if not bleed the money as the illegal streams take over.