American multinational basic cable sports channel ESPN+ will be the new home to the Indian Premier League (IPL) in the United States.
The change comes as Disney will be looking to move the Hotstar content out to their Disney+ bundle for American users.
The change will involve all the sports content that is available on Hotstar will be moved to ESPN+ and the entertainment category which involves movies will be moved to Hulu.
The change is bound to benefit ESPN+ as phase 2 of IPL 2021 is right around the corner, it will be streamed on ESPN+ for the entirety of the tournament. Along with this, all 60 matches of the IPL 2022 will also be streamed on ESPN+ in the United States.
ESPN+ will be benefitting from this migration of content, they will be streaming about 170 matches until 2023, which includes ICC men’s T20 World Cup in 2021 and 2022, ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup in 2022, ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in 2023, and ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup in 2023.
John Lasker, ESPN vice president of digital media programming said, “We remain committed to delivering the most comprehensive coverage of top international cricket to a growing fan base in the US.”
Phase 2 of IPL 2021 is set to begin from 19th September in the UAE with all the franchises looking to make a place for themselves in the knockout stages of the competition.
The first game of the rescheduled IPL will see Chennai Super Kings take on Mumbai Indians.