Willow hopes free cricket streaming channel will grow the sport, add to its audience

Willow TV is hoping viewers sampling world-class cricket for free will want more.
Willow’s existing pay-TV cricket channel, shown on Rogers, Telus and Bell among other providers in Canada, will remain as is. But now it has added Willow Sports, available for free on such streaming platforms as Distro, Plex, Karostream and YuppTV.
“This is giving folks an opportunity to watch cricket for free and it will be a sample of some of the best cricket,” said Willow COO Todd Myers.
The new streaming service has already shown games from the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup as well as the recent men’s tri-series between Canada, Oman and Nepal. It will also feature a sampling of Indian Premier League matches.
Willow bills itself as home of cricket in North America, saying it reaches more than five million South Asians in the United States and Canada. It launched the service in Canada in May 2019 in advance of the ICC Cricket World Cup.
“We’ve become more of a destination for cricket fans and the volume of cricket fans in Canada has actually increased whether it’s through more immigration or just the spreading of the word that this is a great fun sport to watch,” said Myers.
“We’ve seen a growing level of fandom in the country,” he added. “We’ve not close to hockey yet. We’d love to get there but we are growing pretty quickly in the country.”
Myers said the new 24-hour streaming service will include some matches from the 2027 ICC Cricket World Cup in its programming. Taped programming will include milestone performances or matches.
“Our goal is to get to around 2,000 live hours a year, which is roughly 25 per cent of the hours in the year,” he said.
Willow is owned by Times Internet, an multinational technology company headquartered in India.