Brands
Star India reimagines corporate website, to narrate incredible stories of change
MUMBAI: Star India, one of the nation’s leading media conglomerates, has been on a mission to not just entertain India, but also bring about social change through its thought-provoking programming. From innovating entertainment, promoting gender equality, creating a multi-sport culture to shaping the digital landscape, Star has been tireless in its journey to bring alive its mission of ‘Inspiring a Billion Imaginations’.
To take this journey forward, Star India has revealed a brand new vehicle – its interactive website, www.startv.com.
An inspiring storytelling platform, the new website adds a fresh dimension, Imagine more… to Star India’s empowering vision. This mobile-first, immersive and engaging storytelling platform is an expression of how Star India is championing change through the power of media. Star India has partnered DesignStudio, a global brand agency, to distill its chairman & CEO Uday Shankar’s vision of “enabling, empowering and stimulating everyone to find his or her own answers; answers shaped by their own imagination.” The idea influences the website’s search filters, structure, content and photography – every aspect of the digital experience was created to make people Imagine more…
Engaging user experience, interactive content, rich vivid stories and an open-to-all ‘Pitch Your Idea’ initiative, form some of the pillars of the website.
To bring Star India’s stories to life, DesignStudio travelled to India for a photoshoot that spanned the country. It went behind the scenes and beyond the shows to capture the impact of Star India’s work in everything from transforming the village game of Kabaddi into an elite sporting league, to its social initiatives tackling violence against women.
Star India president – consumer strategy and innovation Gayatri Yadav said, “At Star, our mission has been to ‘Inspire a Billion Imaginations’ and the website brings this mission to life. It seeks to inspire and instigate each and every individual to unlock their potential of limitless possibilities. Imagine more… articulates how we take this mission forward and creates a powerful new storytelling address. This is a new home for Star’s incredible stories of change, inspiration, and bold ideas.”
DesignStudio executive creative director James Hurst said, “Our role is often to sift for the magic. Star is very unusual, there is magic everywhere! It has been (and continues to be) an absolutely inspiring rollercoaster getting to understand the breadth and depth of their impact on society and their hopes and ambitions for such an exciting and extraordinary future. We are thrilled with the work so far, and can’t wait for what happens next.”
Brands
UK’s OnlyFans seeks US investor at $3bn valuation after owner’s death
The adult video platform is seeking stability after the death of its billionaire owner
LONDON: OnlyFans is looking for a new partner. The London-based adult video platform is in advanced talks to sell a minority stake of less than 20 per cent to Architect Capital, a San Francisco-based investment firm, in a deal that would value the business at more than $3bn (£2.2bn).
The move is driven by an urgent need for stability. Leonid Radvinsky, the Ukrainian-American billionaire who owned OnlyFans, died of cancer last month at the age of 43, leaving the future of one of Britain’s most profitable privately held businesses suddenly uncertain.
The choice of Architect Capital is not arbitrary. The firm has deep expertise in financial services, which aligns neatly with OnlyFans’ ambitions to offer banking products to its creators, many of whom have long struggled to access basic financial services because of the nature of their work.
The numbers behind OnlyFans are, by any measure, staggering. The platform posted revenues of $1.4bn in the year to 30th November 2024, with a pre-tax profit of $684m, up four per cent on the prior year. Payments to creators totalled $7.2bn over the same period, a rise of nearly ten per cent. Radvinsky personally collected $701m in dividends from the business in 2024 alone, on top of more than $1bn in such payments he had already received. The platform, run through its parent company Felix International, hosts 4.6m creator accounts, with performers keeping 80 per cent of subscription proceeds and the platform pocketing the remaining 20 per cent. It has 377m fan accounts in total.
The current minority stake talks represent a notable scaling back of ambitions. In January, OnlyFans was reported to be in discussions with Architect about selling a majority stake of 60 per cent. Before that, the company had explored a sale to a consortium led by Forest Road Company, a Los Angeles-based investment firm. Neither deal materialised.
OnlyFans has built an enormously lucrative business on content that mainstream finance has long refused to touch. Now, with its owner gone and a $3bn valuation on the table, it is looking for the kind of respectable institutional backing that might finally persuade the banks to take its calls.
