New Delhi: Jio Cinema, which has the digital rights of streaming Indian Premier League (2023) matches on mobile phones suffered a major glitch on Day 1 of IPL season 16. The App which was to stream the matches LIVE crashed, thus drawing flak from fans on Twitter and other social media platforms.
This year, however, the IPL organizers broke new grounds in broadcasting of matches as two different companies Disney & Viacom 18 bagged the rights for smooth & clean watching experience on TV & web streaming separately.
As the fans switched to their mobile phones & laptops to watch the inaugural match between Chennai Super Kings & Gujarat Titans, a lot many faced buffering issues while the screen remained struck for many. Many users took to Twitter to vent their frustration and also mock the Jio Cinema for poor preparedness in telecasting the IPL matches.
In the opener match, Gujarat Titans led by Hardik Pandya were up against Chennai Super Kings, though the latter had its injured captain MS Dhoni missing from the match.
Soon after the match began, many cricket lovers were disappointed with intermittent streaming & also video buffering taking a lot of time. Many took a snap of ‘second-grade’ streaming by the Jio Cinemas & shared it on Twitter.
Notably, the Jio Cinema has the rights to stream all matches of the IPL season 16 and is providing the users a free watching experience. But, with the first match itself providing below par experience to users, it received a lot of flak & wrath. Some fans complained that the company was befooling the fans with its free viewing promise.
Disney Star has the TV rights for telecasting IPL matches, which it bought for Rs 23,575 crore while Reliance-led Viacom bagged the rights for digital streaming at Rs 23,758 crore. This is first year of Viacom doing LIVE streaming of IPL matches on its OTT platform Jio Cinema.
Earlier, Disney Hotstar was doing both telecast, on TV & online.
