iWorld
ZEE5 LAUNCHES ITS FIRST BENGALI ORIGINAL WEB SERIES ‘KAALI’
MUMBAI: After the stunning success of Aranyadeb, ZEE5, India’s #2 OTT platform has announced the launch of a ZEE5 Bengali Original and the first Bengali web series on the platform titled ‘Kaali’. The stellar cast and crew, including director Korok Murmu, actress Paoli Dam and music director Nabarun Bose and cast members, came together to launch the series at an event in the city. The eight episode fast-paced thriller will go live on ZEE5 on 13th November.
Watch the trailer here:
https://www.zee5.com/zee5originals/details/kaali/0-6-1068/kaali-trailer/0-1-149855
Kaali is a story which takes you on a cliffhanger ride where a mother has one night to save her son. Produced by Parambrata Chattopadhyay who is known for acting in and directing brilliant and entertaining films, Kaali delves into the unseen underbelly of Kolkata which is usually spoken about in hushed tones. Filled with hope, courage, danger and betrayal, Kaali is a multi-layered show that will give you jitters as it progresses towards the climax.
Speaking about the launch, Paoli Dam says, “This is my first web series and I am hugely excited for the launch. Working with Param and Rahul has been enjoyable as always. I am keen to see the response of the viewers to the show – ZEE5’s wide reach will make sure we are in a large number of handhelds.”
Parambrata Chattopadhyay, Producer, commented, “We have put together our heart and soul into the making of Kaali. Performances by Paoli Dam, Rahul Banerjee and Shantilal Mukherjee are praiseworthy. Backed with a strong story and unchartered reach of ZEE5, we are certain that Kaali is going to be one of our best creations till date.”
Manish Aggarwal, Business Head, ZEE5 India, said, “ZEE5 consistently strives to deliver edgy and engaging content to its viewers. With rich cinematography and virtually stunning scenes, Kaali is a testament to the rapidly evolving Bangla film industry as also the audience preferences. The show is a thrilling piece from our regional bouquet that will redefine popular perception about the role of women in society. Growth of Bengali content is integral to our regional strategy and Kaali’s launch just ticks all the right boxes to make a perfect entertainment package for our audiences.”
Besides dubbed versions of ZEE5 Originals, the platform has been digitally premiering blockbuster and acclaimed Bengali movies such as Drishtikone, Sonar Pahar, Purnimar Chand and many interesting titles for its subscriber base.
With over 3500 films, 500+ TV shows, 4000+ music videos, 35+ theatre plays and 90+ LIVE TV Channels across 12 languages, ZEE5 truly presents a blend of unrivalled content offering for its viewers across the nation and worldwide. With ZEE5, the global content of Zindagi as a brand, which was widely appreciated across the country, has also been brought back for its loyal viewers.
Availability: The ZEE5 App can be downloaded from Google Play Store http://bit.ly/zee5 and iOS App Store http://bit.ly/zee5ios. Also available at www.zee5.com, as a Progressive Web App (PWA), and on Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV Stick. ZEE5 also supports Chromecast.
Pricing: Freemium pricing model with both free and paid premium content (including Originals) to cater to a mix of audiences. Viewers who subscribe to the ZEE5 subscription pack will get access to the entire library of content with – 99/- for 1 month and 999/- for a year.
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.
