iWorld
SonyLiv starts streaming KBC with 7 sponsors
MUMBAI: “To chaliye, hum aur aap milkar khelte hain Kaun Banega Crorepati.” With these legendary words, the biggest star of Bollywood’s galaxy, Amitabh Bachchan, announced Indian television’s grandest show in his baritone.
Seventeen years hence and in its ninth season, the quiz game show crosses the threshold of TV and entered a fresh territory in digital, but with the same flamboyance. Riding on SonyLiv, the new season of KBC will be the first to be streamed online, and it has already become the property to acquire the highest number of sponsors.
Sony Pictures Networks India EVP and head – digital business Uday Sodhi said, “Kaun Banega Crorepati has revolutionised the viewership for the game show. This year, we decided to further augment its massive fan base by involving the digital audience. The programme has seen high traction from advertisers. With KBC’s launch on SonyLiv, there has been a rapid increase in the digital viewership and further strengthening of SonyLiv’s position among its users.”
The show will be available on SonyLiv on a linear feed on subscription + VoD mode to allow viewers to test their IQ anytime, anywhere!
KBC has been able to rope in seven of the biggest brands in India as its sponsors, a record for any content category. The popularity of the show can be gauged from the fact that Indian telecom’s most talked about brand, Jio, has come on board as the show’s presenting sponsor on SonyLiv and also has a unique proposition this season.
Viewers of KBC can match their knowledge with the contestants on the hot seat with Jio KBC Play Along. This can be done by downloading the Jio Chat app on their phones.
The show is co-powered by India’s largest online automobile marketplace Droom and the go-to brand for Ayurvedic products, Patanjali and driven by Datsun. Gujarat Tourism functions as its associate sponsor. EaseMyTrip has grabbed the role of KBC’s travel partner while caring for its health is Fortune Vivo Diabetes Care Oil.
SonyLiv has been at the forefront of introducing the exclusive and highly anticipated content from all over the world on its platform. KBC’s inclusion within SonyLiv’s repertoire further cements its position as the ultimate destination for the finest content.
With a few alterations in the lifelines, the timer, and a digital transfer of the winning amount, the new season of KBC has been a superbly entertaining ride so far, and it promises to be even more so, on digital!
iWorld
Bill Ackman makes a $64bn bid for Universal Music Group
The hedge fund boss wants to list the world’s biggest record label in New York and thinks he knows exactly what ails it
NEW YORK: Bill Ackman wants to buy the world’s biggest record label. Pershing Square Capital Management, the hedge fund run by the billionaire investor, submitted a non-binding proposal on Tuesday to acquire all outstanding shares of Universal Music Group in a business combination transaction worth roughly $64.4 billion (around 55.8 billion euros).
Under the terms of the offer, UMG shareholders would receive 9.4 billion euros in cash, equivalent to 5.05 euros per share, plus 0.77 shares of a newly created company, dubbed New UMG, for each share held. Pershing Square values the total package at 30.40 euros per share, a 78 per cent premium to UMG’s closing price on April 2.
The deal would see UMG merge with Pershing Square SPARC Holdings, with the combined entity incorporating as a Nevada corporation and listing on the New York Stock Exchange. New UMG would publish financial statements under US GAAP and become eligible for S&P 500 index inclusion. Pershing Square says the transaction is expected to close by year-end, with all equity financing backstopped by Ackman’s firm and its affiliates, and all debt financing committed at signing. The transaction would cancel 17 per cent of UMG’s outstanding shares, leaving New UMG with 1.541 billion shares outstanding.
Ackman has a long history with UMG. Pershing Square first bought approximately 10 per cent of the company from Vivendi in the summer of 2021 for around $4 billion, around the time of UMG’s listing on the Euronext Amsterdam exchange. He has since trimmed that position, raising around $1.4 billion from the sale of a 2.7 per cent stake in March 2025, and resigned from UMG’s board in May 2025, citing new executive and board obligations arising from recent investments.
His diagnosis of UMG’s troubles is blunt. The company’s stock has fallen around 33 per cent over the past twelve months on the Euronext Amsterdam exchange, and Ackman lays out six reasons why. These include uncertainty around the Bolloré Group’s 18 per cent stake in the company, the postponement of UMG’s US listing, the underutilisation of UMG’s balance sheet, the absence of a publicly disclosed capital allocation plan and earnings algorithm, a failure to reflect UMG’s 2.7 billion euro stake in Spotify in its valuation, and what Ackman calls suboptimal shareholder investor relations, communications and engagement.
The Bolloré stake has long cast a shadow over the company. Cyrille Bolloré stepped down from UMG’s board in July 2025 as the Bolloré Group battled the French financial markets regulator over its stake in Vivendi, which holds a further capital interest in UMG. UMG had confidentially filed a draft registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in July 2025 for a proposed secondary listing in America, but put those plans on hold in March 2026, citing market conditions.
Ackman has kind words for UMG’s management, at least. “Since UMG’s listing, Lucian Grainge and the company’s management have done an excellent job nurturing and continuing to build a world-class artist roster and generating strong business performance,” he said. But he made his diagnosis plain: “UMG’s stock price has languished due to a combination of issues that are unrelated to the performance of its music business and importantly, all of them can be addressed with this transaction.”
In other words, Ackman believes UMG is a great business trapped inside a broken structure. If the board agrees, he intends to fix that, loudly and in New York.
