iWorld
Airtel launches cross operator music app Wynk
MUMBAI: Bharti Airtel launched its first cross operator product in the form of music application Wynk Music. Through this, customers of all telcos can access over 17 lakh songs in eight languages which includes: English, Hindi, Punjabi, Bhojpuri, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Bengali.
With this launch, Airtel has now become the first operator to introduce an over-the-top (OTT) mobile application in the Indian market, which will work across mobile operators, enabling customers to stream, download and buy songs.
Wynk is a free to download application available on Android and iOS platforms. With the free version of the app, users can stream songs online and tune into internet radio. Customers will also be able to set any of the songs as their hello tune, purchase songs and albums (as mp3), and view lyrics.
Bharti Airtel director – consumer business Srinivasan Gopalan said, “With the proliferation of smartphones in the country, mobile phones have emerged as the most preferred platform when it comes to experiencing music on the go and accounts for almost 85-90 per cent of total digital consumption. We are introducing this segment to Wynk – an innovative platform that blends technology and music and present a whole new dimension to music uptake in the country. Given our legacy with music and our strong smartphone network, we are certain that Wynk will offer the best-in-class user experience and become one of the most sought after app.”
The app is available in two subscriptions – Wynk Plus, Wynk Freedom and is available ad-free.
Wynk Freedom subscription at Rs 129 is available exclusively to Airtel customers in 3G circles using Android phones will allow them to get all-inclusive unlimited streaming and download of music without incurring additional data charges. Wynk Freedom subscribers can stream or download up to 500 songs a month. Data charges will apply to Wynk Freedom subscribers after the 500 song limit.
With Wynk Plus, users can enjoy unlimited in-app song downloads and play music offline at Rs 99 on Android and Rs 60 on iOS. Airtel customers using Android phones can have a introductory price of Rs 29 on this.
Airtel customers can pay for all purchases on the app using their Airtel balance or bill. Other customers have the option to pay using online banking.
Users without a Wynk subscription are only allowed to stream up to 100 songs a month, after which they will be prompted to buy a Wynk Freedom subscription.
Gaming
India’s broadcasters say no to Fifa World Cup 2026
Fifa has slashed its asking price by 65 per cent but India’s broadcasters are still not buying
MUMBAI: The world’s biggest sporting event cannot find a single taker in the world’s most sports-mad nation. Fifa’s television rights for the 2026 World Cup remain unsold in India, and the clock is ticking loudly.
To shift the property, world football’s governing body has already swallowed hard and cut its asking price from $100m to $35m, bundling in the 2030 edition as a sweetener. It has not worked. Indian broadcasters have looked at the offer, done the sums and quietly walked away.
The reasons are brutally simple. The 2026 tournament, co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico, kicks off in a time zone that turns India’s primetime into a graveyard shift. Most matches will air between midnight and 7am IST, a scheduling catastrophe for advertisers chasing mass reach. The 2022 Qatar edition was a gift by comparison, with matches dropping neatly into Indian evenings. North America offers no such luxury.
The market itself has also changed beyond recognition. The merger of Star India and Viacom18 into JioStar has gutted the competitive tension that once sent sports rights prices soaring. Where rival bidders once slugged it out, there is now a single dominant buyer, and it is in no hurry. JioStar has valued the rights at roughly $25m, a full $10m below Fifa’s already-discounted floor price. That gap has so far proved unbridgeable.
Broadcasters are also nursing a ferocious cricket hangover. Between 2022 and 2023, Indian media houses committed well over $10bn to cricket rights alone, covering IPL, ICC events and BCCI domestic fixtures combined. After a binge of that scale, appetite for a football package that delivers a fraction of the ratings, in the dead of night, is close to zero.
The economics of football broadcasting make the maths even harder. Cricket, with its natural breaks every few overs, is an advertiser’s paradise. Football offers a 15-minute halftime and precious little else. Recovering a nine-figure rights fee from a single half-hour ad window is a stretch at the best of times. These are not the best of times: the Indian government’s tightening grip on real-money gaming and gambling advertising has vaporised a category that once underwrote the economics of big sporting events.
Nor is the World Cup an anomaly. Indian Super League valuations have cratered. English Premier League rights have softened across successive cycles. The cooling of football as a broadcast commodity in India is structural, not cyclical.
With the tournament opening on 11th June, Fifa is running out of road. It may yet blink and meet JioStar at $25m. Or it may go direct, streaming the entire tournament on its own platform, Fifa+, or cutting a digital deal with YouTube, and hoping that a generation of Indian football fans finds its way there without a broadcaster to guide them.
Either way, the beautiful game’s Indian chapter is looking decidedly ugly.
