MAM
More sports feeds more cost-effectively: Globecast announces Globecast Managed Cloud Network
MUMBAI: Globecast, the global solutions provider for media, has announced the launch of Globecast Managed Cloud Network (Globecast MCN), responding to pressures across the sports broadcasting market for more content more of the time, to affiliates and viewers.
Liz McParland, Global Contribution Worldwide and Commercial Director of Contribution UK, said, “The sports broadcasting market is often at the forefront of innovation, given the level of competition for both viewers and sports rights, with the latter increasing in cost. Responding to multiple customer enquiries, Globecast has continued to grow its cloud platform services, the result being Globecast MCN. This allows affiliates to access more content from more sports, with the Globecast quality guarantee, at price points that reflect current market requirements.”
Taking a tennis tournament as the example, Globecast MCN allows multiple additional feeds to be fed into the cloud at the nearest POP, transported across the world in the cloud and then received at an affiliate’s nearest POP. This allows the affiliate to air the content – following matches they choose – without the additional cost of more fibre-delivered feeds and the risk of purely public internet. As competitions move from location to location, this also provides a very simple way to deliver content without the need for onsite installation, with the processing and management complexity handled in the cloud. We can also take care of last-mile connectivity too.
Globecast supplies an end-to-end solution, including management, signal monitoring – Globecast has multiple, dedicated 24×7 MCRs around the world with comprehensive monitoring capabilities – cloud routing, content security and transport layers. This can include the management of affiliates via a Globecast-provided 24/7 helpdesk. The Globecast MCN routing allows affiliates to request only the feed(s) they need to save bandwidth costs.
Globecast MCN sits alongside Globecast BN, the company’s fibre backbone solution, and Globecast XN, its public internet suite of services.
McParland said, “This is not only about supplying additional feeds, it can also be used for the delivery of primary feeds where fibre or satellite isn’t possible or is prohibitively expensive. At Globecast we work to the mantra of delivering content from anywhere to anywhere, partnering with our customers to fully understand their issues. Combined with our years of experience, we then create platforms that overcome these issues and create new opportunities. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach. We have created fluid, flexible services that we can supply as required.”
AD Agencies
Abhay Duggal joins JioStar as director of Hindi GEC ad sales
The streaming giant brings in a seasoned revenue hand as the battle for Hindi television advertising heats up
MUMBAI: Abhay Duggal has a new desk, and JioStar has a new weapon. The media and entertainment veteran has joined JioStar as director of entertainment ad sales for Hindi general entertainment channels, adding 17 years of hard-won revenue experience to one of India’s most powerful broadcasting operations.
Duggal is no stranger to big portfolios or bruising markets. Before joining JioStar, he spent a brief stint at Republic World as deputy general manager and north regional head for ad sales. Before that, he put in three years at Enterr10 Television, where he ran the north region for Dangal TV and Dangal 2, two of India’s leading free-to-air Hindi channels. The north alone accounted for more than 50 per cent of total channel revenue on his watch, a number that tends to get attention in any sales meeting.
His longest stint was at Zee Entertainment Enterprises, where he spent over six years rising to associate director of sales. There he commanded the Hindi movies cluster across seven channels, owned more than half of north India’s revenue across flagship properties including Zee TV and &TV, and closed marquee sponsorships across the Indian Premier League, Zee Rishtey Awards and Dance India Dance. He also handled monetisation for the English movies and entertainment cluster and the global news channel WION, a portfolio that would stretch most sales teams twice his size.
Earlier in his career Duggal closed what was then a Rs 3 crore single deal at Reliance Broadcast Network, one of the largest in Indian radio at the time, before that he helped launch and monetise JAINHITS, India’s first HITS-based cable and satellite platform.
His edge, by his own account, lies in marrying data and instinct: translating audience trends, inventory signals and client demands into long-term partnerships built on cost-per-rating-point discipline rather than short-term deal chasing. In a media landscape being reshaped by streaming, fragmented attention and AI-driven advertising, that kind of rigour is increasingly rare and increasingly valuable.
JioStar, which blends the scale of Reliance’s Jio platform with the content firepower of Star, is doubling down on its advertising business at precisely the moment the Hindi GEC market is getting more competitive. Bringing in someone who has spent nearly two decades doing exactly this, across some of India’s most watched channels, is a pointed statement of intent. Duggal has spent his career turning audiences into revenue. JioStar is clearly betting he can do it again, and bigger.
