iWorld
Culture Machine adds a new category to the leader board for publishers across India
With the beginning of the New Year, India’s largest digital media company, Culture Machine has made an addition of ‘Food’ category to the existing established leader board for publishers in India.
Culture Machine’s patent pending tech IP ‘Intelligence Machine’ tracked the month on month performance of Indian channels on YouTube and Facebook to provide a comprehensive view of which publisher has maximum engagement in terms of views, likes, comments, shares and subscribers.
Continuing to make use of proprietary algorithms and exclusive partnerships with Google and Facebook, Intelligence Machine has the unique ability to track 3 billion videos and categorize and rank publishers extensively. The current report provides insights on three different categories including Food, Entertainment and News.
For more information visit: https://culturemachines.com/im/leaderboards/
Also, please note:
· The rankings are based on the number of views clocked only for the respective month
· Only India based top YouTube and Facebook pages are considered for the analysis
· Top channels from YouTube and pages from Facebook are carefully chosen using Intelligence Machine Influencer section based upon several factors such as subscriber count /page likes, overall viewership, engagement and consistency of video uploads
· Top 100 channels/ pages belonging to food, 500 channels/pages from the entertainment genre and 300 news channels/pages categorized by Intelligence Machine are incorporated in the analysis
· Food category includes pages/channels publishing food recipe related videos like Hebbar’s Kitchen, Curly Tales, Cooking Shooking etc are a part of the report
· The Entertainment category for December’ 18 includes GEC’s like Star Plus, Sab TV, Zee TV along with digital channels like BB Ki Vines. It also covers popular celebrities, music labels, regional TV channels and movie production houses
· News category comprises TV news channels, print newspapers and digital news portals like Buzzfeed, NDTVKhabbar.com, Bollywood Now etc.
iWorld
Rusk Media announces Battleground Season 2 on Amazon MX Player
Fitness reality show returns in April 2026 with bigger challenges and mentors.
MUMBAI: The arena is reopening and this time the competition promises even more sweat, strategy and spectacle. Rusk Media has confirmed the return of its fitness reality format Battleground for a second season, set to stream on Amazon MX Player from April 2026. The announcement follows the breakout success of the show’s debut season, which positioned itself as a high energy blend of sport, strategy and reality television. Season 1 brought together 16 contestants for a 28 day test of endurance and discipline, as aspiring athletes and fitness enthusiasts competed in physically demanding challenges and team based battles.
Divided into four teams, the participants trained under a panel of mentors drawn from the fitness and lifestyle space, with former Indian cricketer Shikhar Dhawan serving as the show’s Super Mentor.
The format quickly found an audience among digital viewers and was listed among the most binged titles on Amazon MX Player. The show also picked up industry recognition, winning the “Most Popular Non Fiction Show” honour at the IWMBuzz Digital Awards 2025.
The first season also drew a slate of brand partnerships, including Honda Bigwing, Charged, American Pistachio Growers, Bigmuscles Nutrition, Ritebite Max Protein, Plix and Sparsh CCTV, highlighting the show’s appeal to brands targeting India’s rapidly growing youth and fitness audience.
For Season 2, the producers say the format will evolve with tougher physical challenges, a sharper competitive structure and deeper mentor involvement while continuing to focus on discovering the next generation of Indian fitness personalities.
Rusk Media, chief executive officer and co founder Mayank Yadav said the first season proved the appetite for competitive fitness storytelling. “Battleground was always envisioned as more than a show. Season 1 demonstrated that there is a massive audience for aspirational fitness competition at scale. With Season 2 we are going even bigger in ambition, intensity and opportunities for contestants and partners,” he said.
Rusk Ads lead Rahul Arora added that the series has also evolved into a strong platform for brand integration and advertiser engagement. “Season 1 showed that Battleground is not just compelling content but a powerful brand ecosystem. As we move into Season 2, we are looking to deepen brand collaborations and build more integrated partnerships,” he said.
With a larger format, an expanding fan base and a new season set to arrive in April 2026, Battleground is positioning itself as one of India’s emerging fitness reality franchises in the digital entertainment space.
