iWorld
Bigg Boss OTT to significantly impact overall digital revenues on Voot
Mumbai: At a time when film producers are tentatively considering direct-to-OTT releases, broadcaster Viacom18 boldly launched its biggest property – Bigg Boss- on its digital platform Voot with an impressive line of sponsors.
‘Bigg Boss OTT’ debuted on its streaming platform on August 8 with film producer Karan Johar hosting the show. There were 13 contestants brought exclusively for the digital platform. The OTT special edition will stream on Voot for the first six weeks following which it will be aired on Colors TV.
“This strategic move can help with an asset like ‘Bigg Boss’ which already has a loyal following on television, which coupled with targeted marketing, made available by performance marketing, can greatly help increase subscriber revenue and user base on the OTT platform,” said Starcom, managing partner, Gautam Surath.
The broadcaster has roped in ‘presents’ sponsor Vimal Paan Masala, while the food delivery platform Swiggy and cryptocurrency exchange platform CoinDCX were brought onboard as ‘co-powered’ by sponsors. The overall sponsorship is estimated to be upwards of Rs 15 crore.
According to Voot, season 13 has so far garnered 20 billion minutes of watch time, 1.5 billion views and reached 40 million viewers. Industry estimates suggest Season 13 of the show has earned around Rs 180-200 crore in advertising revenues from nine sponsors and about 100 advertisers.
“The OTT space is growing at a pace of nearly 35 per cent CAGR as per recent industry reports. Last year due to lockdown and also limited programme choices available on TV, we saw the total paid subscribers going up by 30 per cent in the initial months of FY 21. In the recent months we have also seen a huge growth in original content being released on OTT first,” said dentsu X India’s partner – client leadership, Saurabh Shrivastava.
The launch of the digital property was no less than any TV launch. A full-page jacket ad was splashed on the Sunday edition of Times of India Mumbai, alongwith TV and OOH campaigns.
The digital viewership for reality TV show has been steadily growing at 30-50 per cent since season 10. While reach data for season 14 has not been made available by Voot, media planners estimate that it has grown by 40 per cent. “Purely from the Voot streaming app perspective, season 14 has seen a 40 per cent increase in viewership over last year, garnering 1.5 billion minutes of watch time in the launch week”, observed Starcom’s Surath.
“As an OTT platform, Voot has been growing YoY. It was estimated that Voot reached over 100-110 million MAU at the end of season 14. ‘Bigg Boss’ on Voot clocked close to ~1.5 Bn views during season 13 and it certainly crossed 2.2-2.5 billion views in season 14”, said Havas Media India’s head – digital services, Rohan Chincholi.
The six week-long digital reality series could also act as a launch pad for ‘Bigg Boss season 15’ that will air on television, and contestants from the digital show may make an appearance on the TV reality series.
“With Big Boss getting released on OTT, it will have a lot of traction from young consumers in terms of the time spent and content engagement. A particular mention for Karan Johar as host, as well as participants Shamita Shetty, Neha Bhasin, and Moose Jattana, who are already social media sensations, would bring in new viewers and give this version of the show a lot more eyeballs” added Shrivastava.
Apart from its sponsors, ‘Bigg Boss OTT’ may also attract a lot of advertisers for its digital inventory, according to industry experts. In the past, telcos, mobile handsets, e-commerce, fitness, food delivery, internet companies, insurance, consumer electronics, apparel, home services, fast food, auto and tyre brands have been active advertisers on the digital stream of the show.
Advertising demand on OTT platforms has also essentially doubled in the post-Covid era as more and more viewers have turned to streaming platforms. “This greatly increases the advertising competition, which paves the way for smarter performance marketing strategies that dive deeper into audience targeting, creative intelligence and data analytics. And, in turn, lead to greater RoI, according to agency experts.
Commenting on the cost per mile (CPM) for the digital inventory of the show, Performics’ director of app marketing, Almog Ramrajkar said, “The average cost comes to about Rs 0.12 per impression so the CPM comes to about Rs 120. ‘Bigg Boss’ offers video ad ranges starting from up to 6-seconds to 45 seconds ads which come at a CPM of Rs 120 to Rs 690 respectively.”
The digital stream of the show had a pan India presence reaching over 1200 towns and cities. Internal data shared by Voot in 2019 showed that viewers from NCT of Delhi and Maharashtra saw the highest levels of engagement for the show, followed by Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Karnataka and light levels of engagement from Gujarat, Haryana, Chandigarh, Rajasthan, West Bengal.
“Female audience under the age group of 18-24 has the highest engagement rate for the show with more than 95 per cent completion rate of every unseen clip. A major part of the ‘Bigg Boss’ audience on Voot are tech-savvy urban millennials especially women with high purchasing power and propensity to buy online. Advertising to such an affluent audience is the perfect fit for e-commerce and digital-first brands,” said Ramrajkar.
“Usually, it is an equal split between male and female audiences. The 18-34 age bracket is the most engaged on the platform. More than 50 per cent of the engagement comes from Tier 2 and 3. Mostly youth brands from lifestyle, retail, FMCG, entertainment and automobile categories, associate with this property”, added Havas Media’s Chincholi.
Considering that Voot roped in eight sponsors for season 13 and 11 advertisers for season 14 and the significant growth in viewership of the show year-on-year, ‘Bigg Boss OTT’ will likely have a significant impact on overall digital revenues for the AVOD business.
Gaming
India’s new online gaming rules take effect today, banning money games and creating a regulator
The rules, in force from today, separate e-sports from gambling and impose jail terms and stiff fines on violators
NEW DELHI: India’s online gaming sector woke up this morning to a new reality. The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Rules, 2026, came into force today, May 1st, turning a year of legislative intent into enforceable law. The message from New Delhi is blunt: e-sports and social games are welcome; online money games are not.
The rules operationalise the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming (PROG) Act, passed by Parliament in August 2025. Together, they represent the most sweeping regulatory intervention India has made in its booming digital gaming market, one that generated Rs 23,200 crore in 2024 and is projected to grow at a compound annual rate of 11 per cent to reach Rs 31,600 crore by 2027. The stakes, in every sense, could not be higher.
A sector out of control
The urgency behind the legislation is not hard to find. An estimated 45 crore Indians have been affected by online money gaming platforms, with losses exceeding Rs 20,000 crore. Addiction, financial ruin, money laundering, and suicides have all been linked to the sector. Seventy-seven per cent of the market’s revenues came from transaction-based games, a figure that made regulators deeply uneasy.
The government’s response, effective as of today, is categorical. Online money games, whether based on chance, skill, or any mix of the two, are banned outright. So is their advertising, promotion, and facilitation. Banks and payment processors are barred from handling related transactions. Unlawful platforms can be blocked under the Information
Technology Act, 2000.
The penalties are designed to sting. Offering or facilitating online money games can attract up to three years in jail and a fine of up to Rs 1 crore, or both. Repeat offenders face a minimum of three years, extendable to five, with fines between Rs 1 crore and Rs 2 crore. Advertising such games carries up to two years in prison and fines of up to Rs 50 lakh, with repeat violations attracting higher penalties still. Cyber cell officers at state and union territory levels, including at police station, district, and commissionerate levels, are empowered to investigate offences.
The new sheriff in town
At the centre of the new framework sits the Online Gaming Authority of India, a digital-first regulator constituted as an attached office of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, headquartered in Delhi. It is chaired by the additional secretary of MeitY and includes joint secretary-level representation from home affairs, finance, information and broadcasting, youth affairs and sports, and law and justice, a deliberately multi-sectoral design built for a complex sector.
The authority’s powers are broad. It will maintain and publish lists of online money games, investigate complaints, issue directions, orders, and codes of practice, hear appeals on user grievances, and coordinate with financial institutions and law enforcement to ensure effective and timely action.
Its decisions on game classification are to be completed within 90 days, a time-bound commitment that industry players have welcomed after years of regulatory ambiguity. Classification can be triggered by the authority acting on its own initiative, by an application from a service provider, or by a notification from the central government. Games will be assessed on objective factors: whether stakes are involved, whether players expect monetary winnings, the revenue model, and whether in-game assets can be monetised outside the game. The outcome is recorded in a determination order specific to the game and provider.
E-sports gets its moment
While the crackdown on money gaming dominates today’s headlines, the rules also carve out a structured path for e-sports and online social games. Registration, required when notified by the central government, applies to all games offered as e-sports and is based on factors including risk to users, scale, financial transactions, and country of origin. A successful application yields a digital certificate of registration with a unique number, valid for up to ten years. Service providers must display registration details, designate a point of contact, comply with data retention requirements, and follow directions on facilitating payments.
Online money games are explicitly ineligible for recognition or registration as e-sports under the National Sports Governance Act, 2025. The separation is deliberate, and the industry has noticed.
Akshat Rathee, co-founder and managing director of NODWIN Gaming, called today’s operationalisation “encouraging,” pointing to publisher-led registration of esports titles and a time-bound determination process as creating “much-needed certainty for all stakeholders.” He added that the “continued emphasis on clearly separating esports from online money gaming is critical in preserving the integrity of competitive gaming as a skill-driven discipline.” He described it as “a proud moment to see official acknowledgement of the broader benefits of responsible esports and gaming, from building confidence, discipline, and teamwork to creating new career pathways for young talent,” and said the framework sets “a strong foundation for the ecosystem to scale in a more structured and globally competitive manner.”
Animesh Agarwal, co-founder and chief executive of S8UL, was equally bullish. “This clarity is critical in unlocking investor confidence and attracting multi-genre brands, while also enabling organisations to take a more long-term view, whether in investing in talent, scaling teams, or building globally competitive formats,” he said, adding that it “strengthens trust among audiences and mainstream stakeholders, positioning esports not just as a sport, but as a fast-growing youth entertainment category in India.”
But Agarwal urged caution on several fronts. There remains limited clarity around financial frameworks, particularly in how esports earnings are treated by banks and financial institutions. A well-defined pathway for the formal recognition or registration of esports teams is still evolving, as are structured player protections. He also called for smoother visa processes for esports athletes competing in international tournaments and for government support in developing infrastructure, including bootcamps, training facilities, and access to high-performance equipment across titles.
Vishal Parekh, chief operating officer of CyberPowerPC India, pointed to downstream effects on education and careers. “With formal recognition and policy backing, colleges and institutions are more likely to take the sector seriously, whether through dedicated esports infrastructure, training programmes, or curriculum integration,” he said, adding that this helps students view gaming as a viable career spanning roles across competitive play, content, game development, and allied industries. He noted that as esports gains prominence in global multi-sport events, the framework strengthens India’s position in international competitive gaming, and called on the ecosystem to provide the right infrastructure and access to high-performance hardware to unlock opportunities in talent development and job creation.
Protecting users, one safeguard at a time
The rules introduce a layered system of user protections calibrated to the risk profile of each game. These include age verification, age gating, time restrictions, parental controls, user reporting tools, counselling support, and fair-play and integrity monitoring. Service providers must disclose their safety features and internal grievance mechanisms when applying for determination or registration.
A two-tier grievance redressal system sits atop these safeguards. Users who are dissatisfied with a platform’s resolution can escalate to the authority within 30 days. The authority aims to dispose of such appeals within a further 30 days. A second appeal lies before the secretary of MeitY, who must also endeavour to resolve matters within 30 days. Enforcement proceedings will be conducted in digital mode wherever possible, with cases targeted for resolution within 90 days from receipt of a complaint.
Penalties under the framework are proportionate, taking into account gain from non-compliance, loss to users, the gravity of the offence, and whether violations are recurring. Mitigation efforts by service providers will also be considered when determining penalties. All penalties imposed under the Act will be credited to the Consolidated Fund of India.
The money follows the rules
For investors and founders, the implications are immediate and significant. Sagar Nair, head of incubation at LVL Zero Incubator, a 100-day sprint designed to accelerate early-stage gaming startups across India, argues that with real-money gaming now prohibited, capital will shift “away from transaction-driven models toward content-led, IP-driven, and global-first gaming businesses.” He acknowledged trade-offs: for operators with exposure to real-money formats, the market becomes more restrictive in the near term. But he argued that by clearly separating esports and non-money gaming from online money gaming, “India is positioning itself as a hub for responsible, creative, and scalable game development.” The opportunity, he said, is “to view India not just as a monetisation-first market, but as a talent, IP, and scale market,” adding that “for founders and investors willing to adapt, this shift could ultimately strengthen India’s position in the global gaming landscape.”
The government frames the wider impact in equally ambitious terms: a boost to India’s creative economy and digital exports, new career pathways for young people, protection for families from predatory platforms, and a stronger voice in global digital governance. India, it argues, offers a model for other countries grappling with the same tensions between gaming’s economic promise and its social risks, one that shows innovation and strong safeguards need not be mutually exclusive.
Whether the framework delivers on those promises will depend on enforcement, always the hardest part. But from today, the architecture is firmly in place: a regulator with teeth, a classification system with deadlines, penalties designed to deter, and a clear dividing line between games that build careers and games that destroy finances. For a sector that has grown fast and governed itself loosely, May 1st, 2026 is the day the free ride ends.
