ESPN Sports: Celebs Find Cricket Score On ESPN Star Cricket Live Streaming

If you didn’t buy the ICC World Cup 2011 package for $129 from Willow TV, then you can also turn to ESPN Sports for live streaming of the Cricket World Cup games, plus Cricket live scores, highlights, and schedule for the World Cup.

Since celebrities are so familiar with ESPN, it is highly likely that they are using ESPN Star Cricket live streaming to watch India vs. Australia online today, and to keep up with what is going on during the Cricket World Cup 2011. The India vs. Australia game is the 2nd quarter final match up.

Celebs who love Cricket come from all countries and include Russell Crowe, Daniel Radcliffe, Prince William, Prince Harry, Mick Jagger, and Hugh Grant.

What other celebs do you think may be logging on to ESPN Star Sports Live Cricket today to watch Ind. vs. Aus?

Court bans illegal telecast of World Cup cricket matches

The Delhi High Court has restrained around 144 cable operators across the country from telecasting the ongoing cricket World Cup, which they did by unauthorisedly accessing signals of ESPN Software India Pvt Ltd (ESIPL).

The court was hearing a suit filed by the company seeking an order to restrain cable operators from unauthorisedly broadcasting the tournament.

The ICC Cricket World Cup, being co-hosted by India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, is being telecast on ESPN, STAR Sports and STAR Cricket channels from Feb 19 to April 2.

Allowing ESIPL's plea against the unauthorised accessing of telecast signals by cable operators, Justice Gita Mittal said: "After this order, anyone showing the broadcast of ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 through any unauthorised means or any other channel will be held in contempt of court and liable for prosecution."

The court, in an order delivered Friday and made available Monday, asked all cable operators to file a status report within a week's time.

ESIPL in its suit claimed that the defendants, approximately 144 cable operators, are taking unauthorized connections and they are unauthorisedly accessing signals of the plaintiff without taking a licence from the company.

The court gave permission to ESIPL to take action against all other cable operators not party to the suit but unauthorisedly utilising the feed of ESPN, STAR Sports and STAR Cricket without licence.

The court said: "Restrained the 144 named cable operators from transmitting and/or telecasting in any manner whatsoever without licence from ESS (ESPN STAR Sports) the telecast of ICC Cricket World Cup 2011."

The cable operators have been restrained from telecasting or transmitting any other channel or in any other manner infringing the copyright or re-broadcast right of ESPN STAR Sports.

The court issued injunction against unnamed cable operators indulging in the illegal telecast and told police to render assistance to ESIPL to enforce the order.

ICC Cricket World Cup loses to IPL in TV viewership

The 10th edition of the ICC Cricket World Cup kicked off with a bang, with the opening match between India and Bangladesh drawing nearly 39 million viewers across the country yesterday. But, the figures are about 80 per cent less in some cases, when compared with the opening match of Indian Premier League-3.

Official broadcaster ESPN STAR Sports (ESS) saw 18.8 million viewers tuning in across its three channels, ESPN, STAR Cricket and STAR Sports. Another 20 million viewers watched the match live on Doordarshan, the public sector broadcaster which is free to air.

According to data available with aMap, an overnight television audience measurement agency, ESS recorded ratings of 2.12 points in cable and satellite (C&S) homes across the country. The ratings recorded for the inaugural match of IPL-3 played between Deccan Chargers and Kolkata Knight Riders, is 3.8 points.

IPL matches are, however, only available on SET Max (a pay channel), unlike the World Cup matches, some of which are being shown on DD.

From data for the six metros — Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad — the ratings peaked to 4 points for the World Cup match on Saturday.

The ratings are slightly lower than the peak ratings of 4.3 points recorded in the metros during the opening match of IPL-3.

Moreover, the number of viewers recorded is significantly higher than the viewership for the Commonwealth Games hosted in Delhi in October last year, when cumulative numbers for the event over the first three days had been 33 million. Even the response to the World Cup T20 held in West India in April-May 2010 had been lukewarm, hooking on a mere 5.1 million viewers on the opening day.

Viewership, however, remained strong across the country, with average time spent per viewer at a whopping 85 minutes. In metros, the time spent stood slightly higher, at 88 minutes.

As many as 49 matches are going to be played across India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in the 10th edition of the World Cup, which has returned to the subcontinent after a gap of 15 years. Matches that kicked off on February 19 would end with the final on April 2.