Indian cricket fans have been dealt a double blow on Sunday afternoon. After Jio Hotstar left thousands of users stranded on a looping pre-match screen as the KKR vs RR IPL 2026 match began at Eden Gardens, reports are now coming in that Star Sports — the television broadcast alternative that was the recommended fallback — is also experiencing issues during the live match.
Both the primary digital streaming platform and the television broadcast network for IPL 2026 appearing to face simultaneous disruptions during one of the weekend’s most-watched matches is an extraordinary situation that has left fans with extremely limited options.
What Is Being Reported
Users who switched from Jio Hotstar to Star Sports on television after the streaming outage are now reporting issues with the broadcast feed on Star Sports channels as well. The specific nature of the Star Sports disruption — whether it is a signal issue, a broadcast feed problem, or a DTH distribution failure — has not been officially confirmed at the time of writing. No statement has been issued by Star Sports or its parent network.
The simultaneous failure of both platforms suggests the issue may be originating at the broadcast feed level rather than being two separate, unrelated problems — if the live production feed from Eden Gardens is experiencing a disruption, that would affect both the television broadcast and the streaming platform simultaneously since both draw from the same source signal.
Your Remaining Options Right Now
With both Jio Hotstar and Star Sports facing issues, your options are limited but not zero.
Radio commentary remains available. All India Radio’s sports channels carry live IPL commentary and are accessible through the AIR Sports app or on FM radio frequencies in major cities. If you cannot watch, you can at least follow the game ball by ball through radio commentary.
The BCCI and IPL official social media handles on X and Instagram are posting live score updates and key moments as the match progresses. While not a substitute for watching, they will keep you current on the score, wickets and major developments in real time.
Cricket scoring apps including the official IPL app, ESPNCricinfo, Cricbuzz and CricketAddictor are all providing ball by ball live scoring with commentary text. Cricbuzz and ESPNCricinfo in particular have extensive live text commentary that captures every delivery in detail.
If you are on Jio Hotstar, keep attempting the browser version at jiohotstar.com rather than the app — in some outage scenarios the web version recovers faster than the app as backend load balancers redistribute traffic. Force close and reopen the app periodically as the situation may resolve within the first few overs as peak concurrent connection load stabilises.
The Broader Picture
This is the third Jio Hotstar content failure in a single weekend — following the MTV Splitsvilla Season 16 Episode 44 delay of over 80 minutes on Friday, the IPL stream failure at the match start on Sunday, and now a simultaneous disruption affecting both the streaming and broadcast feed.
For a platform that holds the exclusive digital rights to the IPL — one of the most valuable sports broadcasting properties in the world — and a broadcast network that has built its premium sports identity around live cricket, the simultaneous failure during a high-profile afternoon match is a significant reputational moment that will demand an official explanation.
Neither Jio Hotstar nor Star Sports has issued a statement at the time of writing. Business Upturn will update this article as the situation develops and services are restored.