Star India Launches New Cricket Website To Match Television Experience

News Corp.-owned Star India, which has invested more than Rs 100 crore ($19M) in technology "for enhancing viewer experience for sports consumption," has launched its new website starsports.com, according to the Indian BUSINESS STANDARD. Currently in its beta form, "the site gives Indian cricket fans a personalised audio-visual experience beyond TV." Star India COO Sanjay Gupta said, "We call this a video player as an alternative to television. Younger generation today spend increasingly more time on the Internet, and so we decided to significantly improve the quality of sports online and give them better experience than television." The website features includes high definition video streaming, an advanced player that can be individually controlled and the ability to catch up on the game through both a video scorecard and a video timeline that marks the key moments of the game. Gupta said that while the website is free for now and offers only cricket, "in a phased manner, it will start charging the users" (BUSINESS STANDARD, 1/3).