iWorld
Japan’s most popular show Doctor-X is now streaming on ZEE5
MUMBAI: ZEE5, India’s largest digital entertainment platform, has released Doctor-X, its first Japanese show dubbed in Hindi. The medical drama follows the story of Daimon Michiko, a charismatic and unorthodox freelance surgeon who works at different university hospitals, where her questionable practices bring her into conflict with the administrators.
Starring Japanese actress and former model Ryoko Yonekura as Daimon Michiko (also known as Doctor-X), the eight-episode first season that is streaming on ZEE5 has been produced by Seiko Uchiyama and directed by Miho Nakazono. Veteran actors Ito Shiro and Ittoku Kishibe are also part of the cast. The show first aired from October 18 to December 13, 2012, on TV Asahi in Japan, and was one of the top ranked dramas on private television in its time slot. Ryoko Yonekura was awarded best actress at the 21st Hashida Awards for her performance as Doctor-X.
Viewers in India will love the fearless Doctor-X, who is willing to take on the most difficult surgeries turned down by other surgeons because she does not believe in failure. Her success in treating high-risk patients is a result of her always putting patients first, prioritising their health above performing medical firsts or innovative techniques. This practice often brings her in conflict with other doctors.
“We are thrilled to bring Japan’s most popular show Doctor-X in Hindi to our viewers in India, said Archana Anand, EVP & Head of Digital- ZEE5 India Business. “We are proud to be the only digital platform in India that is transcending the language barrier at such a scale to entertain viewers. Other than Japan, we are also curating top rated international TV shows from USA, United Kingdom, Korea, Turkey, China, Ukraine and Spain and dubbing them in Hindi to bring the best of international content to our viewers”.
Viewers can watch Doctor-X by subscribing to ZEE5 at a special launch offer of Rs 99. As India’s largest, most comprehensive digital entertainment platform for language content, ZEE5 offers its viewers the best of Originals, Indian and international movies and TV shows, music, Live TV, and health and lifestyle content in 12 languages.
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.
