iWorld
Bhuvan Bam or Ashish Chanchlani? Fans can vote to decide Kaun Hai #VMateAsliHolibaaz
MUMBAI: The race to the top has already begun with the commencement of voting for #VMateAsliHolibaaz. The contenders in the race are India’s top YouTube stars Bhuvan Bam and Ashish Chanchlani. As part of the contest organised by trending short video platform VMate, fans of both the brilliant performers are invited to vote and ensure that their favourite comedian walks away with the throne.
Soon after the voting began, it garnered an overwhelming response, with fans of the two YouTubers converging to the platform in large numbers. By participating in the contest and voting for their favourite performer, the users can also win exciting prizes like car, mobile phones and cash. To cast their votes, users can log on to the VMate app or browse through http://s.vmate.com/qVvJbbMnEm and select who the ‘asli holibaaz’ is according to them.
The voting, which is still in its initial phase, suggests a neck-and-neck contest between Bhuvan and Ashish. However, Bhuvan seems to have tapped the initial trends better, with a slight edge over Ashish. The need of the hour is that the fans leave no stone unturned in ensuring that their pick surges ahead in the race. Every vote matters here and can make a remarkable difference till the final result is declared.
Referring to the contest, VMate Associate Director Nisha Pokhriyal said, “The initial response to the voting represents the high excitement level of fans. We are confident that the fans of both Bhuvan and Ashish will ensure an edge-of-the-seat battle as the contest reaches its definitive stage. Going by the response till now, we have no qualms is saying that the special Holi movie starring the two YouTubers will also receive a warm welcome from the fans.”
As part of the #VMateAsliHolibaaz contest, the special Holi film featuring the two YouTube sensations will be released on VMate on March 8, 2020. The film would take the viewers through a hilarious take on the efforts Bhuvan and Ashish made in their bid to be crowned the ‘asli Holibaaz’. It is for the first time that these A-list YouTubers would jointly create content for any platform. The movie can be watched exclusively on VMate app.
Gaming
India’s broadcasters say no to Fifa World Cup 2026
Fifa has slashed its asking price by 65 per cent but India’s broadcasters are still not buying
MUMBAI: The world’s biggest sporting event cannot find a single taker in the world’s most sports-mad nation. Fifa’s television rights for the 2026 World Cup remain unsold in India, and the clock is ticking loudly.
To shift the property, world football’s governing body has already swallowed hard and cut its asking price from $100m to $35m, bundling in the 2030 edition as a sweetener. It has not worked. Indian broadcasters have looked at the offer, done the sums and quietly walked away.
The reasons are brutally simple. The 2026 tournament, co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico, kicks off in a time zone that turns India’s primetime into a graveyard shift. Most matches will air between midnight and 7am IST, a scheduling catastrophe for advertisers chasing mass reach. The 2022 Qatar edition was a gift by comparison, with matches dropping neatly into Indian evenings. North America offers no such luxury.
The market itself has also changed beyond recognition. The merger of Star India and Viacom18 into JioStar has gutted the competitive tension that once sent sports rights prices soaring. Where rival bidders once slugged it out, there is now a single dominant buyer, and it is in no hurry. JioStar has valued the rights at roughly $25m, a full $10m below Fifa’s already-discounted floor price. That gap has so far proved unbridgeable.
Broadcasters are also nursing a ferocious cricket hangover. Between 2022 and 2023, Indian media houses committed well over $10bn to cricket rights alone, covering IPL, ICC events and BCCI domestic fixtures combined. After a binge of that scale, appetite for a football package that delivers a fraction of the ratings, in the dead of night, is close to zero.
The economics of football broadcasting make the maths even harder. Cricket, with its natural breaks every few overs, is an advertiser’s paradise. Football offers a 15-minute halftime and precious little else. Recovering a nine-figure rights fee from a single half-hour ad window is a stretch at the best of times. These are not the best of times: the Indian government’s tightening grip on real-money gaming and gambling advertising has vaporised a category that once underwrote the economics of big sporting events.
Nor is the World Cup an anomaly. Indian Super League valuations have cratered. English Premier League rights have softened across successive cycles. The cooling of football as a broadcast commodity in India is structural, not cyclical.
With the tournament opening on 11th June, Fifa is running out of road. It may yet blink and meet JioStar at $25m. Or it may go direct, streaming the entire tournament on its own platform, Fifa+, or cutting a digital deal with YouTube, and hoping that a generation of Indian football fans finds its way there without a broadcaster to guide them.
Either way, the beautiful game’s Indian chapter is looking decidedly ugly.
