iWorld
Planetcast Media Services sets new standards in live sports broadcasting
Mumbai: Planetcast Media Services is proud to announce its faultless delivery of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 season, with zero downtime or glitches across 74 matches held in 13 stadiums. This exceptional performance continues Planetcast’s legacy of providing top-tier media services for major cricketing events, including the recent T20 World Cup (2 to 29 June), which ended with India defeating South Africa.
Having established itself as a leader in seamless, high-quality broadcasting and streaming solutions, Planetcast has been a trusted technology partner for the IPL for the last 17 years and, in 2024, ensured that cricket fans enjoyed coverage of the T20 World Cup via Star Sports, Hotstar and Times Internet Group’s Cricbuzz. Planetcast’s advanced media services enabled the delivery of advertising of around $450 million for the IPL rightsholders (almost equally split between broadcast and digital platforms, and on par with the $465 million in 2023).
For the 2024 IPL season, Planetcast provided the following services:
1 Star Sports: Delivering domestic TV broadcast to 17 channels in 11 languages with services such as encoding, live transmission, playout, packaging, and delivery solutions.
2 Viacom18: Supporting over-the-top (OTT) streaming on JioCinema.
3 Times Internet: Facilitating international OTT streaming and playout for Cricbuzz.
“Our long-standing partnership with IPL rightsholders underscores our capability to handle live events of significant scale that generate advertising revenues of $450 plus million,” said Planetcast Media Services’ CEO Sanjay Duda. “With the financial stakes so high, it’s critical that we remain dedicated to performing flawlessly and that we enhance match coverage across all the platforms we handle. We are also incredibly excited to have provided media services for the T20 World Cup, which concluded last weekend with India hoisting the trophy after the exciting win against South Africa.”
The IPL’s exponential growth is evident in the record-breaking viewership figures year after year. Star Sports, Disney Star’s broadcasting channel for IPL 2024, drew a record-breaking audience of 546 million over the first 67 matches, according to figures from India’s Broadcast Audience Research Council. JioCinema’s streaming figures show a 38 per cent increase in viewers streaming IPL in 2024 over 2023, with 620 million viewers watching matches on the Viacom 18 service. IPL’s opening 2024 match alone attracted 111 million fans on JioCinema, marking a staggering 51 per cent increase from the year before.
Building on its IPL success, Planetcast is also providing comprehensive services for the T20 World Cup, including:
1 Star Sports: Managing the world feed via satellite, covering 17 channels in three languages, and providing encoding, live transmission, playout, packaging, and delivery solutions.
2 Hotstar: Delivering disaster recovery services, channel content replacement, and vertical feed delivery.
3 Times Internet Group (Cricbuzz): Implementing AI-based editing for instant highlight creation, near-real-time ad insertion, and graphic insertion and playout for the US market.
Gaming
MTG gaming chief Benninghoff joins NODWIN board as esports firm primes for IPO
The Gurugram-based esports firm is pursuing a public listing, has returned to profitability and is growing revenues by 42 per cent
GURUGRAM: NODWIN Gaming is moving fast. The Gurugram-based gaming and esports company has launched a pre-IPO fundraising round, appointed UBS as lead adviser for both the round and a subsequent public listing, and landed a heavyweight board director, all in one go.
The new board member is Arnd Benninghoff, executive vice president of gaming at Stockholm-listed Modern Times Group (MTG), who has overseen the group’s strategic investments and portfolio growth since 2014. He is no stranger to building things: Benninghoff has founded and built fifteen companies, served as chief digital officer at ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG, managing director of SevenVentures, and chief executive of Holtzbrinck eLAB. He began his career as a journalist at Deutsche Presse Agentur and various TV networks, holds a Diplom-Kaufmann in business and administration from the University of Münster, and previously sat on the board of Edgeware AB.
The numbers back the ambition
NODWIN is not pitching a story without substance. The company has returned to EBITDA profitability and posted a 42 per cent year-on-year revenue surge, reaching $58.5m in the first nine months of FY2026. The pre-IPO round will combine a primary issuance to fund global expansion through organic growth and acquisitions, alongside a secondary sale to give existing shareholders some liquidity.
Akshat Rathee, co-founder and managing director of NODWIN Gaming, said Benninghoff understands “the entire lifecycle of the gaming and media ecosystem, from the boots-on-the-ground reality of building startups to the strategic complexity of managing multi-billion dollar global portfolios.”
Benninghoff, for his part, said the company “sits at the intersection of sports, entertainment, and technology, making it one of the most exciting players in the global gaming landscape today.”
A portfolio built for the global south
Founded in 2014 by Rathee and Gautam Virk, NODWIN has quietly assembled one of the more compelling esports portfolios outside the Western hemisphere. Its properties include DreamHack India and Comic Con India, and it recently acquired StarLadder, the Ukraine-based tournament organiser behind premier events in CS:GO and Dota 2. The company also serves as a long-term strategic marketing partner for the Evolution Championship Series (EVO), the world’s most prominent fighting game tournament, helping push it into new geographies.
Its geographic focus spans South Asia, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Backers include Nazara Technologies, KRAFTON, Sony Group Corporation, JetSynthesys, and the founders’ investment vehicle Good Game Investments.
What comes next
With UBS running the books, a board freshly reinforced with European media and gaming expertise, and revenue heading in the right direction, NODWIN is laying the groundwork deliberately. The esports industry has burned investors before with big promises and thin margins. NODWIN’s return to profitability, combined with a real portfolio of owned intellectual properties across gaming, music and youth culture, gives it a more credible runway than most. The IPO clock is now ticking.
