iWorld
Viu and Star Suvarna launches McDowell’s no1 Soda No.1 Yaari with Shivanna
MUMBAI: Friendship and brotherhood is the support system that sees millennials through moments of self-doubt and obstacles and is truly responsible for shaping them. McDowell’s No1 Soda by Diageo India and the global Video-on-Demand OTT service by Vuclip and PCCW – Viu, are now bringing alive such friendships of well-known personalities from real to reel life in a brand-new talk show called No. 1 Yaari with Shivanna in collaboration with Mindshare & Group M. The series will be hosted by superstar Shivrajkumar, who is known to be a true friend in the entertainment industry. The show will be simulcast on Viu & Star Suvarna starting 25th February, 2018, every Sunday 8.00-9.00PM
The show brings together for the first time as guests, Sandalwood stars and their real-life BFFs who will share their behind-the-door secrets, friendship defining moments & play interesting games with Shivrajkumar, while the fans will be treated to some never seen before videos and the audience, get to ask their favorite stars questions to know them better.
“No. 1 Yaari is a first of its kind entertaining show curated for the viewers that will help celebrate the spirit of brotherhood and friendship. I value friendship since it has been one strong support pillar in my personal journey. As much as the stars are public figures, they have a side that is still private and under wraps and my job will be to help them open-up. I would love them to share how their friendships have shaped them as individuals as well as have the fans privy to some unrevealed fun and friendly moments from their lives,” Actor & Anchor of the No.1 Yaari Show, Shivrajkumar said.
Commenting the new show Diageo India, Executive Vice President & Portfolio Head, Marketing, Amarpreet Singh said, “Curating a show that is all about Yaari by joining hands with people who matter, was always on our agenda. With McDowell’s No. 1 soda No.1 Yaari with Shivanna we are excited to co-produce a show that brings you closer to such stories of brotherhood between renowned artists which is something audiences would look up to. Also, with this we look to take a step forward in creating more engaging content to connect and engage with the millennials of today!”
Elaborating on the show, Viu India, Head of Monetization & Distribution, Sameer Gogate said, “With an endeavor to show premium content, we at Viu are extensively establishing content franchises that will appeal to the millennials nationwide. The franchise ‘No. 1 Yaari’ is one such exciting addition to our original content library that brings fans in touch with the personal life of popular celebrities. After Success of the show in Telegu we are glad to extend our long-standing partnership with Group M as we expand our content library with yet another engaging show hosted by an Iconic superstar of the Kanada film industry”
“It’s a great moment of delight for us to have Shivanna as the host for the very emotional and feel good show. It is a treat to see him with stars getting connected to one another and give the audience glorious joyous time on Sundays at 8pm” –Spokesperson, Star Suvarna.
Mindshare South Asia, Chief Innovation Officer, Mac Machaiah Commented- “After the grand success that it enjoyed on its previous runs, this time, No. 1 Yaari will celebrate the timeless friendships built between stars in the Kannada entertainment industry. Mindshare is pleased and proud to have been able to co-produce it, and deliver such enriching, branded content to Indian viewers. Shedding light on the often unknown bonds built behind the scenes, it celebrates the wonderful spirit of brotherhood and friendship. This is yet another stepping stone on Mindshare’s journey of creating unique shows and programs for viewers in the country, spanning a variety of novel areas and subjects, by utilising machine learning, creativity, adaptive marketing, and more.”
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.
