MAM
Max expecting to rake in ad revenues of Rs 2.6 billion from World Cup
MUMBAI: With the cricket World Cup scheduled to kick off next week, Sony Entertainment’s Max has got a raft of sponsors on board.
Information available with Indiantelevision.com indicates that Max is expecting to make around Rs 2.6 billion from cricket’s headline event, market sources point out.
As presenting sponsors Max has roped in Pepsi and Nokia. The associate sponsors include Maruti Udyog, ITC Foods, Videocon, Hero Honda, LG and Aditya Birla Group. Set India executive VP Rohit Gupta says that ITC Foods is a new entrant.
There are also a raft of sponsors for Max’s wrap around programming Extraaa Innings. They are Hyundai, Mayur Suitings, Luminous, Bidlite, Visa, Indiagames, Maxwell and Kentaro.
The feeling in some quarters is that the timings will to some extent be more beneficial to male oriented brands. Men are more likely than women to burn the midnight oil to watch the outcome. Media experts point out that for the 2003 World Cup in South Africa, when matches started in the afternoon there was decent sampling even at the start of the matches. Now what kind of viewing there will be post midnight is of course not known, apart from the India matches where it will be strong.
Max has also done special packages. For instance, Fall of Wickets has Hyundai as sponsor, for Super Fours it is Monster.com, Super Sixes by Madhura Garments. For scrollers Max has tied up with LIC, Western Union, Jaguar, Kotak, Naukri.com and Bharatmatrimony. Gupta adds that there will not be more than 60-70 scrollers in a match.
The aim is to ensure brand integration without impacting viewer experience. In a match, Max will have 4800-5200 seconds of advertising, Gupta says. Anymore than that and one runs the danger of ball cutting.
Max was also to have done an initiative Host Ka Dost Hunt where the winner would have been a part of Max’s Extraaa Innings team. That however has not happened. Max business head Sneha Rajani points out that nobody suitable was found.
Brands
YES Bank hands the keys to SBI veteran Vinay Tonse as it bets on a new era
Former SBI managing director appointed as YES Bank’s new MD and CEO
MUMBAI: YES Bank is done rebuilding. Now it wants to grow. The private sector lender has appointed Vinay Muralidhar Tonse as managing director and chief executive officer-designate, with RBI approval secured and a start date of April 6, 2026 confirmed. The three-year term signals the bank’s intent to shift gears from crisis recovery to full-throttle expansion.
Tonse, 60, is no stranger to scale. Most recently managing director at State Bank of India, he oversaw a retail book of roughly $800bn in deposits and advances, one of the largest in the country. Before that, he ran SBI Mutual Fund from August 2020 to December 2022, a stint that saw assets under management surge from Rs 4.32 lakh crore to Rs 7.32 lakh crore across market cycles. Add stints in Singapore and four years leading SBI’s overseas operations in Osaka, and the incoming chief arrives with a genuinely global CV.
His academic grounding is equally solid: a commerce degree from St Joseph’s College of Commerce, Bengaluru, and a master’s in commerce from Bangalore University.
The appointment follows an extensive search and evaluation process by the bank’s Nomination and Remuneration Committee. NRC chairperson Nandita Gurjar said the committee unanimously backed Tonse, citing his leadership track record, governance credentials and ability to drive the bank’s next phase of transformation.
Non-executive chairman Rama Subramaniam Gandhi was unequivocal. “I am certain that Vinay Tonse, with his vast experience as a senior banker, will propel YES Bank to its next phase of growth,” Gandhi said, adding that the bank remains focused on strengthening its retail and corporate banking franchises and expanding its branch network.
Rajeev Kannan, non-executive director and senior executive at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, the bank’s largest shareholder, said Tonse’s experience across retail, corporate banking, global markets and asset management positioned him well to lead the lender. SMBC said it looks forward to working with Tonse and the board as YES Bank pursues its ambition of becoming a top-tier private sector lender anchored in strong governance and sustainable growth.
Tonse succeeds Prashant Kumar, who took the helm in March 2020 when YES Bank was in freefall following a severe financial crisis, and spent six years painstakingly stabilising the institution, rebuilding governance and restoring operational scale. Gandhi was generous: “The bank remains indebted to Prashant Kumar, who is responsible for much of what a strong financial powerhouse YES Bank is today.”
Tonse, for his part, struck a purposeful note. “Together with the board and my colleagues, I remain deeply committed to creating long-term value for all our stakeholders,” he said, pledging to build on Kumar’s foundation guided by his personal motto: Make A Difference.
Beyond the balance sheet, Tonse played cricket at college and club level and represented Karnataka in archery at the national championships — sports he credits with teaching him teamwork, situational leadership, discipline and focus. In quieter moments, he reaches for retro Kannada music, classic Hindi songs, and the crooning of Engelbert Humperdinck, Mukesh and Kishore Kumar.
YES Bank has its steady-handed rebuilder in Kumar to thank for survival. Now it has a scale-obsessed growth banker at the wheel. The next chapter starts April 6.
