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ESPL to continue association with Tiger Shroff for Esports league season 2
Mumbai: ESports Premier League (ESPL) on Monday announced to continue its association with actor Tiger Shroff as the face of franchise-based Esports league for the second consecutive year.
Along with the partnership extension, ESPL has also roped in Global smartphone brand TECNO Mobile as presenting sponsor and India’s leading streaming platform, LOCO as their exclusive digital broadcast partner for ESPL Season 2.
Tiger’s association with ESPL season 2 is expected to further bolster the positioning of the league. In the last season, Tiger’s video of cheering esports athletes garnered more than a million views on YouTube.
TECNO Mobile is promoting TECNO Pova 3 through ESPL which started on 15 June.
Speaking on the association with Tiger Shroff, ESPL director Vishwalok Nath said, “Tiger Shroff played a key role in making ESPL a household name in its first season. His popularity and fan following among the youth and millennial audiences helped us to engage and influence gamers across the country. His star power also helped push Esports to the mainstream. We are delighted to extend our fruitful association with Tiger in the second season. I’m confident that Tiger’s strong connection with the audiences will help us greatly in achieving our aim of revolutionising the Indian esports ecosystem.”
Shroff added, “I am glad to continue my partnership with India Today Gaming for ESPL Season 2. Esports has seen an explosive growth across the country. ESPL is a great platform for esports athletes to showcase their talent on the national stage. I am happy to be part of this undertaking to grow the esports industry while encouraging the esports players and the gaming community.”
The second edition of ESPL kickstarted on 15 June as this year’s league has been engaging gamers from across the country in high-voltage action of the most popular battle royale game, Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI).
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Paramount set to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery in $81 billion deal
Shareholders back merger, combined entity could reshape streaming and studios.
MUMBAI: Lights, camera… consolidation, Hollywood’s latest blockbuster might be happening off-screen. Shareholders of Warner Bros. Discovery have voted in favour of selling the company to Paramount in a deal valued at $81 billion rising to nearly $111 billion including debt setting the stage for one of the biggest shake-ups in modern media. The proposed merger, still subject to regulatory approvals, would bring together a vast portfolio spanning HBO Max, CNN, and franchises such as Harry Potter under the same umbrella as Paramount’s own heavyweights, including Top Gun and CBS.
At the heart of the deal is streaming scale. Executives have indicated plans to combine HBO Max and Paramount+ into a single platform, potentially creating a stronger challenger to giants like Netflix and Amazon’s Prime Video. Current market data suggests HBO Max holds around 12 per cent of US on-demand subscriptions, compared to Paramount+’s 3 per cent, together still trailing Netflix’s 19 per cent and Disney’s combined 27 per cent via Disney+ and Hulu.
Paramount CEO David Ellison has signalled that while platforms may merge, HBO’s creative identity will remain intact, stating the brand should “stay HBO” even within a broader ecosystem.
Beyond streaming, the deal would redraw the map for film production. Combining two of Hollywood’s oldest studios Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros., the new entity aims to scale output to over 30 films annually, while maintaining a 45-day theatrical window. Warner Bros. currently commands around 21 per cent of the US box office, compared to Paramount’s 6 per cent, underscoring the strategic weight of the acquisition.
But scale comes with scrutiny. Critics warn that fewer players could mean reduced consumer choice, rising subscription costs, and potential job cuts as the combined company looks to streamline overlapping operations while managing billions in debt.
The news business, too, faces a reset. CNN would join forces at least structurally with Paramount-owned CBS, raising questions about editorial independence and positioning. The merger has already drawn political attention in the United States, particularly given perceived ties between the Ellison family and Donald Trump, though the company maintains that newsroom autonomy will be preserved.
If approved, the deal would mark another milestone in Hollywood’s consolidation wave shrinking the industry’s traditional “big six” studios to a “big four”, with Paramount joining Disney, Universal, and Sony at the top table.
In an industry built on storytelling, this merger may well become its most consequential plot twist yet.
