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Hisense renews FIFA World Cup tie-up, flaunts RGB-MiniLED might at IFA 2025
BERLIN: Hisense, the Chinese consumer electronics and appliances giant, has confirmed it will continue as an official sponsor of the FIFA World Cup, extending a partnership first struck in 2018. The announcement came at IFA 2025 in Berlin, where the company also unveiled a raft of television and smart-home innovations designed to cement its position as a leader in next-generation display technology.
For Hisense, football has become a stage for technology theatre. It began with logo visibility at Russia 2018, grew into content collaboration on FIFA+ in 2022, stretched to technology integration in VAR systems at the FIFA Club World Cup earlier this year, and will now culminate in sponsorship of the 2026 World Cup, the first to feature 48 teams across three host nations. Each milestone, the firm insists, has tightened its grip on global brand recognition.
Hisense Group vice-president Catherine Fang said the strategy was rooted in four principles: being technology driven, user oriented, culturally grounded and smart-service focused. “Every unforgettable moment starts with the right experience,” she told the Berlin audience. “Our role is to help fans own that moment.”
At the heart of Hisense’s display push is RGB-MiniLed — a technology it claims to have invented and now positioned as a rival to OLED. The firm has already paraded the world’s largest RGB-MiniLED set, a 116-inch television, and at IFA it showed refinements that deliver purer colours, sharper contrast and brightness levels beyond those of QD-Oled. The screens, it boasts, can achieve 100 per cent of the BT.2020 colour gamut, promising images that replicate reality.
FIFA is sold on the promise. Romy Gai, the governing body’s chief business officer, called Hisense’s technology a way to bring “billions of fans” closer to the World Cup in 2026. For Hisense, the ambition is bolder still: to transform living rooms into front-row seats, ensuring households in Lagos, Lahore and London feel the same drama as fans in Los Angeles or Mexico City.
IFA 2025 itself has become a proving ground. Under the banner “Own the Moment”, Hisense is staging a media showcase at City Cube Berlin and a larger product exhibition at Hall 23a, with television walls, AI-driven appliances and connected living systems all on display. The message is simple: Hisense wants to set the benchmark not just for picture quality but for how households interact with technology.
Founded in 1969 in Qingdao, Hisense now operates in more than 160 countries and, according to Omdia, leads the world in sales of 100-inch and larger televisions in the first half of 2025. Its continued sponsorship of the World Cup suggests that, in the battle for consumer attention, football remains the ultimate shop window. For Hisense, the combination of sports spectacle and cutting-edge screens is designed to make sure that when fans cheer, they do so in front of a Hisense.
Brands
Maharashtra panel orders Lodha to refund Rs 5 crore to homebuyers
Consumer court flags unfair practices in long-running property dispute case
MUMBAI: In a sharp rebuke to one of India’s biggest real estate players, the Maharashtra State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has directed Macrotech Developers to refund nearly Rs 5 crore to a senior citizen couple, Uttam and Anindita Chatterjee. The ruling, delivered on March 13, 2026, calls out the developer for “deficiency in service” and “unfair trade practices”, bringing closure to a dispute that has stretched over a decade.
The case traces back to 2015, when the couple booked a 3-BHK flat at World Towers in Lower Parel for Rs 12.22 crore, with possession promised within a year. What followed was a series of changes that complicated matters. After deciding to exit the project, they were persuaded to shift to a 4-BHK in another development priced at Rs 8 crore, with delivery scheduled for 2018. However, within months, the price was allegedly increased to Rs 10 crore. After demonetisation reshaped the market, similar flats were reportedly being offered at lower prices, but the couple were not given the benefit.
Despite paying over Rs 2.83 crore, the couple neither received possession nor clarity. Instead, in 2018, the developer unilaterally cancelled the booking, retained part of the amount as earnest money, and argued that the buyers were investors rather than consumers. The commission rejected this claim, observing that casual references to “investment” do not take away consumer rights when the purchase intent is residential.
The bench also held that the developer could not penalise buyers for payment delays while failing to meet its own delivery commitments. It noted the lack of formal documentation for revised terms and termed the prolonged retention of funds without delivering a home as exploitative.
As part of its order, the commission directed the developer to refund Rs 2.83 crore paid by the couple, along with interest at 10 per cent per annum, amounting to around Rs 2.12 crore. In addition, Rs 1 lakh has been awarded for mental agony and Rs 50,000 towards litigation costs, taking the total payout to over Rs 5 crore. The developer has been asked to comply within two months.
For now, the ruling serves as a reminder that in real estate, shifting terms and delayed promises can carry a significant cost.
