Willow Cricket (formerly Cricket Plus) is
the only dedicated American cricket television channel, showing both matches
and cricket-based programs. The channel broadcasting rights are owned by Willow
TV in the United States.
Cricket Plus was launched in 2006 as a premium
channel for South Asian viewers on DirecTV and this channel also debuted in
Canada as ATN Cricket Plus, owned by Asian Television Network. Cricket Plus
broadcasts cricket matches, including the Cricket World Cup, and several
cricket-based programs from TEN Sports. Cricket Plus was renamed Willow Cricket
in 2010.
The Willow Cricket channel is available on
satellite providers DISH Network and DirecTV, which is available a la carte and
bundled in the Hindi Mega Pack on DISH and the HindiDirect package on DirecTV.
It is also available on cable systems like Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cablevision
and Cox Cable Willow
holds exclusive broadcast licenses from various cricket boards worldwide,
including the BCCI (India), Cricket Australia, England and Wales Cricket Board,
Cricket South Africa, New Zealand Cricket, Zimbabwe Cricket and others.
Willow has operated an Internet portal for live
streaming of cricket events at willow.tv since 2003. Willow has driven various
innovations in the coverage of cricket, like video-based live scorecards and
editorials, plus powering YouTube's coverage of the Indian Premier League in
2010. The website provides subscribers with high-quality video streams
available on laptops, smartphones, tablets, plus
web-connected devices like Roku,
Boxee, GoogleTV, Samsung's
Internet@TV and Playstation
3
