A recent study by MEC IPL TV Rating Prediction forecast that over the next few years, online viewership is expected to grow and overall viewership would be split between online and television. It also pointed out that in IPL 4, there was a 38 per cent online reach. While a third of Internet users claimed to have watched IPL on YouTube, about 8 per cent watched it on Indiatimes.
Also, a study by CyberMedia Research brings out the fact that smartphone shipments in the country touched 11.2 million units in 2011, recording a year-on-year growth of 87 per cent. It just means that more are equipped with mobility to get anything, anytime.
As the first match between the Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians begins on Wednesday, you can watch the IPL cricket live streaming anywhere at your convenience.
Catch it online
The IPL 5 is being streamed ‘near’ live online by Indiatimes, though with a delay. According to the official IPL T20 website, the feed would be delayed by five minutes on the partnering site – ipl.indiatimes.com – and its channel on the popular video streaming site, YouTube – www.youtube.com/indiatimes – in India.
The dedicated IPL site also has interactive scorecards, high-definition streaming of IPL matches, DVR features (to rewind during a match), online radio commentary in partnership with AIR , video-on-demand facility, and a new section, named Battleground.
It might be to accommodate television broadcasters, whose ratings still matter a lot in telecasting matches.
On the go
You can also watch it on your mobile devices, through three platforms – Apalya, Avani TV and iPad app.
Apalya Technologies, based out of Hyderabad, is a white-label content aggregation, provisioning and distribution platform in the mobile video delivery space. It expects to facilitate about three million subscribers watch IPL 5 on their mobiles. It had about 1.5 million subscribers on its platform watching the last season.
There will, however, be a five-minute delay on the live feed on all these platforms. But we can hear you saying, "Better late than never."