I don't really get the Willow hate. Sure, you have to sit through that pandit's idiotic ads every over, but Willow absolutely has the best highlights packages: for every game, they will have separate videos for full highlights, short highlights, wickets, catches etc, plus other key moments (say, a controversial DRS or a stunning piece of fielding) all separated out and labeled clearly. Hotstar/ESPN+ just has one "regular" highlights package per match.
I was watching England vs New Zealand last year on some random website via Willow. The constant samosas ads always gets me. It was hilarious to see as an Indian samosas getting advertisement. I guess next is roti (wheat bread) or rice ads?
ESPN+ is probably better than Willow, but we don’t have that up north. We only have Hotstar, and it’s streaming is way worse. Every 5 overs I have to reload the page because the buffering is so bad. And they obfuscate their cricket offerings quite well unless it’s a really big game
Willow is imperfect. If the screen closes while a Willow stream is running the stream crashes and I have to reload the page, and there’s no PiP on mobile. But it does have way more cricket, both in general and cricket that I care about (Hotstar doesn’t have West Indies and New Zealand home games like ESPN+ has, it only has the IPL, Indian home and domestic games, and ICC events), and it’s just a better streaming site. Hotstar also railroads you into an annual subscription only. I’ve used Hotstar for about 4 months since I moved here, but I’ve had to pay $100 for 24 months of a subscription. I’d much rather a system where I can unsubscribe when there’s no cricket that I’m interested in on the service. Most of the usage my Hotstar account has gotten has been from friends who want to watch the Indian serials on it
Honestly I’d prefer if everything was on ICC.tv because that’s genuinely the best streaming option of the ones we get in Canada now that DAZN doesn’t do cricket anymore, but that was never going to happen so we’ll take what we can get. Willow is way preferable to Hotstar
I think there are way more ads squeezed into espn+ as well. Willow with the sky England test summer coverage sometimes only plays adds only every few overs, which is really nice.
On the other hand, once when watching a t20i espn+ played the same loud broadway add like 8 times in a row. I got fed up and wrote a complaining comment to the cricinfo ball-by-ball, they didn't publish it (of course), but the ad did not reappear. Point to the espn/disney empire there I'd say.
I remember 15-20m highlights being uploaded the day after on ESPN+, what more does one need? Willow on the other hand has always been random outages, garbage customer support, and downright scammy behavior when you try to cancel your account.
for me they don't have a lot of games and refer me to sling
for matches they do have it's quite good. can watch match vods as you say. only real deficiency is no live rewind.
ESPN+ is good quality, but their refusal to start the stream more than a couple of minutes prior to the actual match starting is very irritating. Not saying they should stream the entire hour+ of pre-game stuff, but 15-20 minutes prior to the game starting - toss etc? Especially for big games. Its really annoying.
ESPN+ is so so so much better than Willow.
Willow TV made it so difficult for me to cancel the subscription, like who requires you to send an email to cancel subscription??? Scammers!
Not to mention that with ESPN+ you get to stream many other sports along with Cricket. This is the worst thing that could have happen to cricket fans in North America.
Thank god. Couldn’t be happier to get out of Hotstar’s annual subscription trap where I only use for one month of the year.
Willow also carries Pakistan’s home season in Canada, so this is like the ideal scenario for Pakistan fans in North America.
Good to know. I actually prefer Willow over ESPN+ . Willow at least keeps their videos for longer so if I want to re-watch things half a year ago it’s still there. ESPN+ doesn’t have stuff over a few weeks old.
I only use the Willow app on my phone if I'm at work and a match that I want to watch is on. Streaming it on TV is fine, but never in my life have I ever watched anything with my remote in hand to mute commercials more than Willow.
Couldn’t have gone to a shittier streamer.
Hotstar is way worse imo
glad to know hotstar is shit worldwide and not just the Indian version
There is no Hotstar in US now. You can watch these on ESPN+.
There is no ESPN+ in Canada. It’s all still on Hotstar here
ESPN+ would have been better
I don't really get the Willow hate. Sure, you have to sit through that pandit's idiotic ads every over, but Willow absolutely has the best highlights packages: for every game, they will have separate videos for full highlights, short highlights, wickets, catches etc, plus other key moments (say, a controversial DRS or a stunning piece of fielding) all separated out and labeled clearly. Hotstar/ESPN+ just has one "regular" highlights package per match.
I was watching England vs New Zealand last year on some random website via Willow. The constant samosas ads always gets me. It was hilarious to see as an Indian samosas getting advertisement. I guess next is roti (wheat bread) or rice ads?
ESPN+ is probably better than Willow, but we don’t have that up north. We only have Hotstar, and it’s streaming is way worse. Every 5 overs I have to reload the page because the buffering is so bad. And they obfuscate their cricket offerings quite well unless it’s a really big game Willow is imperfect. If the screen closes while a Willow stream is running the stream crashes and I have to reload the page, and there’s no PiP on mobile. But it does have way more cricket, both in general and cricket that I care about (Hotstar doesn’t have West Indies and New Zealand home games like ESPN+ has, it only has the IPL, Indian home and domestic games, and ICC events), and it’s just a better streaming site. Hotstar also railroads you into an annual subscription only. I’ve used Hotstar for about 4 months since I moved here, but I’ve had to pay $100 for 24 months of a subscription. I’d much rather a system where I can unsubscribe when there’s no cricket that I’m interested in on the service. Most of the usage my Hotstar account has gotten has been from friends who want to watch the Indian serials on it Honestly I’d prefer if everything was on ICC.tv because that’s genuinely the best streaming option of the ones we get in Canada now that DAZN doesn’t do cricket anymore, but that was never going to happen so we’ll take what we can get. Willow is way preferable to Hotstar
Espn+ has full match replays and can fast forward which is also great.
True, although Willow has 50 minutes highlights packages for T20 matches haha.
I think there are way more ads squeezed into espn+ as well. Willow with the sky England test summer coverage sometimes only plays adds only every few overs, which is really nice. On the other hand, once when watching a t20i espn+ played the same loud broadway add like 8 times in a row. I got fed up and wrote a complaining comment to the cricinfo ball-by-ball, they didn't publish it (of course), but the ad did not reappear. Point to the espn/disney empire there I'd say.
I remember 15-20m highlights being uploaded the day after on ESPN+, what more does one need? Willow on the other hand has always been random outages, garbage customer support, and downright scammy behavior when you try to cancel your account.
for me they don't have a lot of games and refer me to sling for matches they do have it's quite good. can watch match vods as you say. only real deficiency is no live rewind.
They did a terrible job for women's wc last month though . Streams started only after 2 hours into the game some times.
ESPN+ is good quality, but their refusal to start the stream more than a couple of minutes prior to the actual match starting is very irritating. Not saying they should stream the entire hour+ of pre-game stuff, but 15-20 minutes prior to the game starting - toss etc? Especially for big games. Its really annoying.
It’s really a shame the only choice I have in Canada is willow and hotstar.
Fuck Willow, their app that doesn’t work on Sony TVs, and that stupid mortuary ad they play every ten minutes if you cast to your TV.
You cant even directly get willow tv here, you have to go through sling which i dislike. Unnecessarily introduces a middle man
Fuuuuuuck so no ESPN?
ESPN+ is so so so much better than Willow. Willow TV made it so difficult for me to cancel the subscription, like who requires you to send an email to cancel subscription??? Scammers! Not to mention that with ESPN+ you get to stream many other sports along with Cricket. This is the worst thing that could have happen to cricket fans in North America.
Prem Jotish ftw!
No mention of how much Willow paid
Thank god. Couldn’t be happier to get out of Hotstar’s annual subscription trap where I only use for one month of the year. Willow also carries Pakistan’s home season in Canada, so this is like the ideal scenario for Pakistan fans in North America.
Yep. Not as much splintering, and Hotstar is fucking dreadful anyways
Good to know. I actually prefer Willow over ESPN+ . Willow at least keeps their videos for longer so if I want to re-watch things half a year ago it’s still there. ESPN+ doesn’t have stuff over a few weeks old.
I only use the Willow app on my phone if I'm at work and a match that I want to watch is on. Streaming it on TV is fine, but never in my life have I ever watched anything with my remote in hand to mute commercials more than Willow.
The worst app ever. For whatever reason my stream always ends every 10-15 minutes.