News Broadcasting
3G operator in UK to launch mobile World Cup TV show
MUMBAI: 3G, the UK-based mobile media company, is set to launch the first commissioned sports programming for Mobile TV. Berlin or Bust, which airs on 5 June, will be an irreverent and entertaining look at the tournament, providing fans with previews and reviews of every day’s action throughout the year’s most important event.
Fronted by presenter Sam Delaney and with a host of footy-loving celebrities on the guest list, from the Kaiser Chiefs to Ray Winstone, Berlin or Bust will be a riotous magazine show, in contrast to the BBC and ITV suited and booted studio commentary teams. Football legend Ray Wilkins will join Sam to analyse the day’s play and news from the tournament, states an official release.
3 customers will be able to tune in to two daily editions of Berlin or Bust’s flagship show, timed to ensure fans are kept entertained while on their way to watch games or on their way back from the pub.
The show will be available free to all 3 customers throughout the tournament. 3’s World Cup related mobile TV programming also includes free 4-minute highlight packages of all 64 matches just five minutes after each match ends, adds the release.
The preview show does what it says on the tin – previewing what could happen during the day’s matches, players to watch out for and refs that could prove tricky. The show will also include special reports from Ally McCoist “Man in Germany”, reporting on the latest gossip from the England camp and updates on what is happening on the ground in Germany. Preview Show special features include:
* The Jock Report – 3’s embittered Scottish correspondent gives his unashamedly biased and abusive assessment of the day’s England news.
* Ref Watch – A potted biog of the referees of the day’s key matches as the presenters pick holes in their performance so far.
* Face-Off – The worst pre-match painted faces and comedy hats.
* Journo-balls- Sam’s pick of the strange stuff, outrageous predictions and general news from the morning’s papers.
* Flashpoint – The two players in the game most likely to clash.
* Fan Updates – Video rants, messages, crazy celebrations; a round-up of the best amusing World Cup related content sent in by 3 customers.
Fans will be able to access further updates throughout the day until the Review Show airs after the final match with more features and frank opinions on the day’s action. Features include:
* Seven Faces of Sven – A gallery of the seven separate facial expressions of the England manager as he manages the team in his last major tournament.
* The Furniture Store – A quick look at the World Cup tables to see who’s on the up, who’s struggling and who’s already heading home.
* Ref Rant – The fans get their say about the refs of the day, with prizes for the best.
* Table top analysis – pub-style tactical analysis featuring pint pots and ashtrays as the key players.
* The Sub Plot – The hidden theme of the match, noticed by “the 3 sofa” whilst everyone else was focusing on the main action.
3G UK marketing director Graeme Oxby says, “This is the first World Cup since the launch of 3G and we expect to see a massive difference in the way fans keep up with the action when compared to 2002. 3 has been keeping football fans up-to-date for the last three seasons with Premiership highlights, match updates and news and now its time to take this expertise into the World’s biggest sporting tournament. The launch of Berlin or Bust means that fans can now enjoy their best ever World Cup by making sure they are never out of touch with the action.”
3’s free World Cup content will also include match highlights made available following every game, five minutes after the final whistle. A new match centre application for the 2006 Fifa World Cup will also offer minute-by-minute text commentary and in-match statistics from every game.
News Broadcasting
TOISA 2026 shortlists unveiled ahead of Lucknow ceremony
Eighth edition on March 21 honours standout performers from 2025.
MUMBAI: TOISA 2026 just dropped a shortlist so stacked, even the trophy is wondering if it needs a bigger shelf. The Times of India Sports Awards (TOISA) has revealed its 2026 shortlists, setting the stage for the eighth edition on 21 March at The Centrum Hotel in Lucknow. Celebrating achievements from 1 January to 31 December 2025 across more than 45 sports categories, this year’s nominees capture a golden 12 months of Indian sport from ODI and T20 World Cup triumphs to double golds at the Asian Athletics Championships and podium finishes at the World Para Athletics Championships.
For the first time, TOISA opens its doors to the public. Passes are available at timesofindia.indiatimes.com/toisa2025.
Standout shortlists include:
- Badminton (Male): Lakshya Sen, Ayush Shetty, Kiran George, Chirag Shetty, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy
- Badminton (Female): Tanvi Sharma, Unnati Hooda, Tressa Jolly, Gayatri Gopichand
- Cricket (Male): Shubman Gill, Abhishek Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, Varun Chakaravarthy, KL Rahul, Kuldeep Yadav
- Cricket (Female): Smriti Mandhana, Pratika Rawal, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Shafali Verma
- Athletics (Male): Neeraj Chopra, Animesh Kujur, Gulveer Singh, Sachin Yadav
- Athletics (Female): Parul Chaudhary, Rupal Chaudhary, Jyothi Yarraji, Pooja Singh
- Shooting (Female): Suruchi Inder Singh, Simranpreet Kaur, Esha Singh, Elavenil Valarivan, Sift Kaur Samra, Manu Bhaker
- Emerging Sportsperson: Tanvi Sharma (badminton), Divya Deshmukh (chess), Shree Charani (cricket), Vaibhav Suryavanshi (cricket)
- Team of the Year: India Women’s Cricket Team, India Men’s Cricket Team, India Men’s Hockey Team, India Men’s & Women’s Kabaddi Teams, India National Shooting Team, India Women’s Cricket Team for the Blind, India Squash Team, India Women’s Ice Hockey Team
| Category | Shortlist 1 | Shortlist 2 | Shortlist 3 | Shortlist 4 | Shortlist 5 | Shortlist 6 | Column 1 | Column 2 |
| Badminton male | Lakshya Sen | Ayush Shetty | Kiran George | Chirag Shetty | Satwiksairaj Rankireddy | |||
| Badminton female | Tanvi Sharma | Unnati Hooda | Tressa Jolly | Gayatri Gopichand | ||||
| Cricket male | Shubman Gill | Abhishek Sharma | Ravindra Jadeja | Varun Chakaravarthy | KL Rahul | Kuldeep Yadav | ||
| Cricket female | Smriti Mandhana | Pratika Rawal | Jemimah Rodrigues | Deepti Sharma | Shafali Verma | |||
| Athletics (Track and field) male | Neeraj Chopra | Animesh Kujur | Gulveer Singh | Sachin Yadav | ||||
| Athletics (Track and field) female | Parul Chaudhary | Rupal Chaudhary | Jyothi Yarraji | Pooja Singh | ||||
| Sportsperson of the year (combined of all sports) | Divya Deshmukh | Suruchi Inder Singh | Smriti Mandhana | Samrat Rana | ||||
| Equestrian | Ashish Limaye | Shruti Vora | Divyakriti Singh | |||||
| Hockey male | Abhishek Nain | Harmanpreet Singh | Jugraj Singh | Amit Rohidas | ||||
| Hockey female | Udita Duhan | Navneet Kaur | Mumtaz Khan | Rutuja Pisal | ||||
| Shooting male | Samrat Rana | Ravinder Singh | Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar | Anish | Varun Tomar | Rudrankksh Patil | ||
| Shooting female | Suruchi Inder Singh | Simranpreet Kaur | Esha Singh | Elavenil Valarivan | Sift Kaur Samra | Manu Bhaker | ||
| Emerging sportsperson (combined) | Tanvi Sharma (badminton) | Divya Deshmukh (chess) | Shree Charani (cricket) | Vaibhav Suryavanshi (cricket) | ||||
| Coach of the year (male, female combined) | Amol Majumdar (Cricket) | Suresh Singh (Shooting) | Ashok Kumar Rana (Shooting) | |||||
| Chess male | Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa | Aravindh Chithambaram | Panneerselvam Iniyan | Nihal Sarin | Arjun Erigaisi | |||
| Chess female | Divya Deshmukh | Koneru Humpy | Vaishali Rameshbabu | Nandhidhaa PV | ||||
| Archery male | Dhiraj Bommadevara | Abhishek Verma | Atanu Das | Prathamesh Fuge | Rishabh Yadav | |||
| Archery female | Ankita Bhakat | Jyothi Surekha | Deepika Kumari | Prithika Pradeep | ||||
| Billiards/Snooker | Pankaj Advani | Aditya Mehta | Brijesh Damani | |||||
| Weightlifting male | Rishikanta Singh | Muthupandi Raja | Dilbag Singh | Lovepreet Singh | ||||
| Weightlifting female | Mirabai Chanu | Mehak Sharma | Bindyarani Devi | |||||
| Wrestling male | Sunil Kumar | Nitesh | Aman Sehrawat | Sujeet Kalkal | ||||
| Wrestling female | Antim Panghal | Manisha | Nisha Dahiya | |||||
| Squash male | Abhay Singh | Saurav Ghosal | Velavan Senthilkumar | Mahesh Mangaonkar | ||||
| Squash female | Anahat Singh | Joshna Chinappa | Dipika Pallikal Karthik | Tanvi Khanna | ||||
| Table Tennis male | Manav Thakkar | Sathiyan Gnanasekaran | Harmeet Desai | Payas Jain | ||||
| Table Tennis female | Manika Batra | Sreeja Akula | Diya Chitale | Ayhika Mukherjee | ||||
| Team of the Year (combined from all sports) | India Women’s Cricket Team | India Men’s Cricket Team | India Men’s Hockey Team | India Men’s & Women’s Kabaddi Teams | India National Shooting Team | India Women’s Cricket Team for the Blind | India Squash Team | India Women’s Ice Hockey Team |
| Tennis Male | Rohan Bopanna | Yuki Bhambri | Sumit Nagal | |||||
| Tennis Female | Ankita Raina | Vaishnavi Adkar | Sahaja Yamalapalli | |||||
| Football male | Subhasish Bose | Sunil Chhetri | Vishal Kaith | Brison Fernandes | Gurpreet Singh Sandhu | |||
| Football female | Soumya Guguloth | Grace Dangmei | Elangbam Panthoi Chanu | Manisha Kalyan | Pyari Xaxa | |||
| Kabaddi | Sanju Devi | Pawan Sehrawat | Ritu Negi | Arjun Deshwal | ||||
| Boxing male | Sachin Siwach | Hitesh Gulia | Pawan Bartwal | Ankush Panghal | ||||
| Boxing female | Minakshi Hooda | Jaismine Lamboria | Nikhat Zareen | Pooja Rani | ||||
| Sailing | Vishnu Saravanan | Zahaan Hemrajani | Abhimanyu Panwar | Ghashiayah A | ||||
| Para Archery male | Harvinder Singh | Vivek Chikara | Rakesh Kumar | Shyam Sunder Swami | ||||
| Para Archery female | Sheetal Devi | Payal Nag | Jyoti Baliyan | |||||
| Para Athlete (Track & Field) male | Sumit Antil | Shailesh Kumar | Sandeep Kumar | Nishad Kumar | ||||
| Para Athlete (Track & Field) female | Simran Sharma | Preethi Pal | Ekta Bhyan | Deepthi Jeevanji | ||||
| Para Badminton male | Pramod Bhagat | Sukant Kadam | Krishna Nagar | |||||
| Para badminton female | Mandeep Kaur | Manasi Joshi | Nithya Sre | |||||
| Para chess | Vaibhav Gautam | Samarth J Rao | Venkata Krishna Karthik K | |||||
| Para judo | Kapil Parmar | Avidha Sharma | Rahul Rajora | Kokila | ||||
| Para shooting male | Bhat Amir Ahmad | Nihal Singh | Sandeep Kumar | Rudransh Khandelwal | ||||
| Para shooting female | Mona Agarwal | Avani Lekhara | Rubi Kumari | |||||
| Para Sportsperson of the year | Sheetal Devi (Para Archery) | Praveen Kumar (Para Athletics – High Jump) | Preethi Pal (Para Athletics – Sprint) | Sumit Antil (Para Athletics – Javelin) | ||||
| Para Coach of the year | Dr. Satyapal Singh (Para Athletics) | Subhash Rana (Para Shooting) | Gaurav Khanna (Para Badminton) | Sandhya Bharti (Para Taekwondo) |
The jury comprises six of India’s most decorated athletes, Leander Paes, Mithali Raj, Abhinav Bindra, Devendra Jhajharia, Sharath Kamal and PR Sreejesh.
TOISA remains the one night on the Indian sporting calendar judged purely on merit, not popularity. This year’s edition in Lucknow, a state that has steadily become a powerhouse of grassroots talent reflects how excellence now runs deep across every region.
In a year when Indian sport refused to stay in one lane, TOISA isn’t just handing out trophies, it’s framing a portrait of a nation that’s finally sprinting, swinging and shooting its way onto the world stage, one unforgettable moment at a time.









