Hotstar has withdrawn as an associate of Indian Premier League. The online streaming app of exercised an exit clause in the deal as on-grounds sponsors of the Indian domestic T20 cricket tournament. India Today quoted BCCI official as saying that there was an exit deal in the associate sponsors’ clause and Hotstar exercised it. However, the deal will have no effects on Hotstar's digital streaming rights. Brendon McCullum Appointed as Head Coach of Kolkata Knight Riders for IPL 2020. 

IPL associate sponsorships are worth 40-80 crore per years. Hotstar bought the deal at Rs. 42 crore per year. Star India had cracked a five year deal for IPL media rights in 2019. Star India had made a winning bid of Rs 16347.5 crore for digital rights of Indian Premier League. This included both television and digital platforms rights. The next season of IPL will be played around March-April 2020, the exact dates haven’t been announced yet.

After the end of IPL 2019, Hotstar claimed to have crossed 300 million viewers and registered a 74 per cent rise in watch-time compared to IPL 2018. IPL tournaments are one of the most watches cricket tournaments and has a massive fan following in India. The 12 edition of IPL saw Mumbai Indians defeated Chennai Super Kings in an exciting clash. Lasith Malinga took a wicket on the very last ball to win IPL 2019 final by one run. With the victory, Mumbai Indians also became the team to win the most number of IPL titles with four.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 16, 2019 03:06 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).