iWorld
Aastha TV to launch OTT, VOD service
MUMBAI: Now mobile users who are fans of spiritual gurus like Morari Bapu, Shivani, Acharya Balkrishna and Swami Ramdev will be able to watch their programmes and discourses while on the go. The Swami Ramdev-Acharya Balkrishna-owned Vedic Broadcasting today launched an app which will stream the live linear channel feed of the TV channels of the Aastha group – including Aastha Bhajan, Aastha TV, Vedic and Arihant. In addition to that it features over 500 hours of VOD content and users will be able to watch catch up TV for the previous nine days.
Interestingly, Aastha TV is already available as a live channel on YuppTV.
According to Swami Ramdev, the Aastha app would bring “bring people across the world closer to Indian spirituality and meditation. It will break national boundaries and anyone anywhere will be able to watch the best of spirituality and natural wellness through Yoga and Ayurveda.”
Balkrishna believes that the app will “help connecting the younger generation across India and the world with the Indian spiritual value-based system and help them enrich their lives spiritually, mentally and physically.”
The app has been powered by OTT YuppTV’s white label service, which has moved on from being just an OTT platform to being a technology service provider to video companies wanting to deliver content via mobile and OTT services.
Says Yupp TV CEO Uday Reddy: “We are glad to associate with Aastha channel and expedite its reach across digital channels via our multi-screen white-labelled video platform. While the channel promotes spirituality and culture amongst the youth and elderly alike, our white labelled OTT Platform will ensure the channel's direct reach and accessibility to the users."
Adds Aastha TV CEO Pramod Joshi: "The present-day user is equipped with digital mediums, smartphones and tablets and their viewing habits have changed. Hence, it is important for us to be present where our users are and make it convenient for them to watch our content and have a direct connection with them. We thank YuppTV's white-labelled OTT Platform for helping us successfully navigate through the world of OTT and making Aastha channels directly accessible to users via iOS and Android mobile apps, websites and connected TVs."
The Aastha app will be free for users in India but will be available for a subscription, after an initial free period, in different markets globally.
The content on the app will also be available in regional languages like Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Oriya, Bangla and Marathi.
The app will also have also beam videos of Ramdev's yoga camps as well as his discourses, which will be dubbed in regional languages for wider reach.
iWorld
WhatsApp emerges as key commerce channel in India: Meta report
Whitepaper shows 77 per cent of purchases influenced by social media and shoppers spend 2.5 times more across channels
MUMBAI: If shopping once meant a stroll down the high street, today it begins with a scroll on a smartphone. India’s retail journey is being rewritten in real time, as consumers glide between Instagram Reels, WhatsApp chats and physical stores with barely a pause for thought. A new whitepaper by Meta in collaboration with the Retailers Association of India argues that this shift is not cosmetic but structural, powered by artificial intelligence, short form video, creators and conversational commerce.
The numbers underline the scale of the change.
Social media now influences 77 per cent of retail purchase decisions in India, with Meta’s platforms accounting for 96 per cent of social driven discovery. Discovery itself is increasingly passive and visual rather than deliberate and search led. As much as 97 per cent of consumers watch short form video daily, and 60 per cent of time spent on Facebook and Instagram is devoted to video content.
In other words, the shop window has moved to the feed.
The report highlights the growing dominance of the omnichannel shopper, a consumer who researches and buys fluidly across online and offline environments. More than 50 per cent of retail consumers research products online before purchasing in store. Equally, over 50 per cent browse in store before completing their purchase online.
This blended behaviour is lucrative. Shoppers who buy across channels spend 2.5 times more than single channel shoppers. When customers engage across multiple touchpoints, spending rises by as much as 73 per cent. For retailers, unified commerce is no longer a strategy slide. It is a revenue imperative.
Meta India director of E commerce and retail Meghna Apparao, urged brands to focus on three pillars: Reels and creators for authentic storytelling, omnichannel performance marketing to connect platforms, and WhatsApp as a personalised commerce channel. Hitesh Bhatt of RAI noted that the challenge is no longer adopting digital tools but integrating them to deliver measurable outcomes.
Artificial intelligence sits at the heart of this integration. Indian retailers using Meta’s omnichannel optimisation have recorded more than fourfold improvements in omnichannel return on ad spend. Businesses that integrated in store sales data through Meta’s Conversions API have reported Roas uplift ranging from 2 times to 5 times or more, alongside incremental sales growth of up to 9 times depending on category and market.
Integrated data strategies have also delivered revenue growth of up to 15 per cent, suggesting that when digital signals are tied to offline outcomes, marketing efficiency sharpens considerably.
Retailers are already putting this into practice. Reliance Digital has leaned into a Reels first strategy, working with regional creators to drive engagement and measurable business impact. Croma says Meta’s AI powered tools have enabled it to integrate offline data and activate performance marketing across touchpoints, strengthening both footfall and revenue across online and physical stores.
Trust is increasingly creator led. The report finds that 71 per cent of consumers make a purchase within a couple of days of seeing creator content on Meta’s technologies. Campaigns that leverage reels and creators have delivered 71 per cent higher brand intent lift and 19 per cent lower acquisition costs.
Micro and nano creators, in particular, are accelerating purchase decisions by embedding products into relatable, local narratives. Influence is no longer confined to celebrity endorsements. It is distributed, conversational and continuous.
If Instagram and Facebook drive discovery, WhatsApp is emerging as the conversion engine. According to the report, 72 per cent of product discovery now happens on WhatsApp. Retailers using business messaging and click to WhatsApp campaigns are seeing a 61 per cent average improvement in return on ad spend, a 62 per cent increase in leads and 22 per cent higher order values.
The implication is clear. Commerce is shifting from clicks to conversations. Discovery, purchase and post purchase support increasingly unfold within a single chat thread.
The whitepaper argues that omnichannel maturity will define competitiveness in Indian retail. Consumers no longer toggle between online and offline modes. They operate across both simultaneously, often within the same buying journey.
For brands, the task is no longer about being present on digital platforms. It is about stitching together discovery, data, conversation and store experience into a unified loop that can be measured in footfall, revenue and repeat purchase.
As India’s shoppers continue to scroll before they stroll, the retailers who align AI, creators and messaging into one seamless experience may find that the path to growth is less about adding new channels and more about connecting the ones they already have.
