iWorld
Disney+ Hotstar brings back its iconic dance reality show Dance+ Pro
Mumbai: Carrying on the legacy of being home to one of the biggest dance shows in India, Disney+ Hostar is thrilled to announce an all-new season of widely watched dance reality show, Dance+ Pro. Season seven of the show will see veteran choreographer Remo D’Souza once again resume his role as the super judge. Along with him on the judge’s bench will be skilled dancers Punit J. Pathak, Shakti Mohan and Rahul Shetty as team captains herding 12 teams on the show. Season 7 of the cult show is taken to the next level and the upcoming edition is free to stream on all devices and will present brands with an exciting and powerful opportunity to connect with a loyal fan base.
Disney+ Hotstar is the go-to platform for captivating entertainment, especially for iconic dance reality shows like Nach Baliye, Dance Champions, and Dance+. This rests on the idea of the genre forever innovating itself. Dance+ Pro carries forward this legacy with the introduction of industry-first innovations like AI chatbots, will share contestants’ backstories, and a unique ‘Watch Plus’ tool that for the first time will allow viewers to closely analyze a dance move at their own pace. Along with these, the show also introduces newer collaborations like dancers joining hands with local social media stars and representing various regions and languages. Additionally, the show will also offer a host of engagements with Remo D’Souza inviting dance entries from the audience every week. Fans can also record and send their favorite dance move. Winning entries stand a chance to get featured on the show. Additionally, viewers are also invited to create reels replicating the popular steps of the dances. The multi-touchpoint engagements take it beyond screens and make it an ideal platform for brands to gain maximum visibility.
Disney+ Hotstar head – content, & Disney Star HSM entertainment network Gaurav Banerjee said, “Disney+ Hotstar has propelled entertainment storytelling through genres and formats and Dance Plus Pro is a step forward towards this commitment. We are extremely excited to bring forth a brand new season of this spectacular dance show headlined by super-judge Remo Dsouza and hope the audience will enjoy it.
With Dance+ Pro being a popular reality show, Disney+ Hotstar this year is set to elevate the watch experience further through a plethora of technological and content innovations for viewers. Brands can also be a part of the experience with the platform’s expansive reach and innovative features like in-episode integrations, branded segments, anchor mentions, ILU showcase, astons and windows as well as show-based vignettes with celebs.
iWorld
Bill Ackman makes a $64bn bid for Universal Music Group
The hedge fund boss wants to list the world’s biggest record label in New York and thinks he knows exactly what ails it
NEW YORK: Bill Ackman wants to buy the world’s biggest record label. Pershing Square Capital Management, the hedge fund run by the billionaire investor, submitted a non-binding proposal on Tuesday to acquire all outstanding shares of Universal Music Group in a business combination transaction worth roughly $64.4 billion (around 55.8 billion euros).
Under the terms of the offer, UMG shareholders would receive 9.4 billion euros in cash, equivalent to 5.05 euros per share, plus 0.77 shares of a newly created company, dubbed New UMG, for each share held. Pershing Square values the total package at 30.40 euros per share, a 78 per cent premium to UMG’s closing price on April 2.
The deal would see UMG merge with Pershing Square SPARC Holdings, with the combined entity incorporating as a Nevada corporation and listing on the New York Stock Exchange. New UMG would publish financial statements under US GAAP and become eligible for S&P 500 index inclusion. Pershing Square says the transaction is expected to close by year-end, with all equity financing backstopped by Ackman’s firm and its affiliates, and all debt financing committed at signing. The transaction would cancel 17 per cent of UMG’s outstanding shares, leaving New UMG with 1.541 billion shares outstanding.
Ackman has a long history with UMG. Pershing Square first bought approximately 10 per cent of the company from Vivendi in the summer of 2021 for around $4 billion, around the time of UMG’s listing on the Euronext Amsterdam exchange. He has since trimmed that position, raising around $1.4 billion from the sale of a 2.7 per cent stake in March 2025, and resigned from UMG’s board in May 2025, citing new executive and board obligations arising from recent investments.
His diagnosis of UMG’s troubles is blunt. The company’s stock has fallen around 33 per cent over the past twelve months on the Euronext Amsterdam exchange, and Ackman lays out six reasons why. These include uncertainty around the Bolloré Group’s 18 per cent stake in the company, the postponement of UMG’s US listing, the underutilisation of UMG’s balance sheet, the absence of a publicly disclosed capital allocation plan and earnings algorithm, a failure to reflect UMG’s 2.7 billion euro stake in Spotify in its valuation, and what Ackman calls suboptimal shareholder investor relations, communications and engagement.
The Bolloré stake has long cast a shadow over the company. Cyrille Bolloré stepped down from UMG’s board in July 2025 as the Bolloré Group battled the French financial markets regulator over its stake in Vivendi, which holds a further capital interest in UMG. UMG had confidentially filed a draft registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in July 2025 for a proposed secondary listing in America, but put those plans on hold in March 2026, citing market conditions.
Ackman has kind words for UMG’s management, at least. “Since UMG’s listing, Lucian Grainge and the company’s management have done an excellent job nurturing and continuing to build a world-class artist roster and generating strong business performance,” he said. But he made his diagnosis plain: “UMG’s stock price has languished due to a combination of issues that are unrelated to the performance of its music business and importantly, all of them can be addressed with this transaction.”
In other words, Ackman believes UMG is a great business trapped inside a broken structure. If the board agrees, he intends to fix that, loudly and in New York.
