~snip~
Not just Star but every media house who manage to get their hands on IPL or India's bilateral cricket rights, it does look excellent strategy from service providers point of view because they have monopoly in providing content but on the other hand it hurt average fans as they can't access highlights etc easily. Surprisingly recently SONY started uploading bilateral series in youtube, so may be there is some hope.
Yes, the problem is everyone doesn't want to pay for everything and looks for what is free. The media houses who actually manage to get their hands on the rights, I think that they make the best out of it. But it's also a good thing that Sony started to upload bilateral series on YouTube. Those who don't want to pay or don't have the ability, maybe still can enjoy the games.
Well its not always about ability to pay etc but easy access to masses as well. Easy access in interweb like youtube etc brings new fans, doesn't matter if they love-play the game or not but it could definitely attract more eyeballs.
for example in India cricket is popular because its almost free to watch on tele, all you have to do is spend 300-400 rs for cable and you get all sort of entertainment options including sports channels but at the same time compare this system with England and Australia, completely opposite situation. Props to BCCI.
But when its comes to online presence (highlights, short clips) BCCI and service providers do terrible job. You can't expect everyone to visit BCCI site every time they want to see 2 mins action.