iWorld
Celebrity led-VOD platform Wakau ropes in Big B, Tendulkar & others as contributors
MUMBAI: CA Media Digital and Jetsynthesys have jointly launched their first of its kind, freemium celebrity video blogging app called Wakau in India.
The app, which allows users to access unseen candid celeb moments to help them connect further with their favourite stars and celebs, was launched by Amitabh Bachchan.
Apart from Bachchan, Wakau has also roped in celebs like Sachin Tendulkar, Arjun Kapoor, Ayushmann Khurrana, Nirahua, Shaan, Manju Warrier, Tamannaah Bhatia, Sophie Choudry, Arman Malik and Elli Avaram, who will contribute to the platform.
The app will upload new content including landmark moments from the celebs lives, hobbies and interests and career stories, for subscribers on a daily basis. On Wakau, fans can watch, share and comment on a variety of videos categorised topically and by celebrity. The app, has a celebrity interface feature that enables celebs to upload premium video content, while allowing them to track fan comments on their videos and respond directly.
Talking about his association with Wakau, Bachchan said, “Social media is an integral part of my life today. I have always tried to stay connected with my fans and respond to them whenever possible through my blog and other social media platforms. I am glad to be associated with an interactive platform like Wakau, through which I can share some of my candid moments from my day to day life with my fans and inch closer to them.”
Freely downloadable to users across India, this freemium app allows consumers to view celebrity videos for free, with the videos being interspersed with advertisements. The app also supports an ad-free experience via its subscription service.
CA Media India EVP operations Rishi Negi said, “Wakau is a great opportunity for celebrities to connect with their fans and share personal stories, interests, sepia moments and cherished thoughts through their video blogs. The app is a celebrity hotspot that enables consumers to gain easy access to insightful videos of their favourite superstars and personal heroes on their phones.”
Jetsynthesys vice chairman and managing director Rajan Navani added, “Through constant and continuous innovation we at Jetsynthesys strive to offer the best in digital technology and Wakau is no exception. With a deep focus on creating a personal connect with the consumer through leveraging analytics, the Wakau experience will eventually pave the way towards many firsts for the world. We are excited to launch this unique world class Indian product that would become the social digital media screen of the 21st century.”
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.
