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Disney Star onboards 28 sponsors for the ICC World Test Championship Final
Mumbai: Disney Star, the official broadcaster for the ICC World Test Championship Final (WTC), has received a tremendous advertiser response both for its television and OTT platforms. Star Sports Network has onboarded 15 sponsors and Disney+ Hotstar has roped in 13 sponsors across categories ahead of the much-awaited tournament that gets underway from June 7 to 11, 2023.
Star Sports’ sponsors include Bajaj Allianz, LAYER’R SHOT, Pokerbaazi, MRF, Samco Securities, Jindal Panther Steel, Ultratech Cement, DBS Bank, Atomberg Technologies, Maruti Suzuki, Charged By Thums Up, Hero Motocorp, Cadbury Dairy Milk, Livguard Energy Technologies, Allied Blenders and Distilleries. In addition to the 15 sponsors, Star Sports has also onboarded 40 advertisers and over 45+ brands.
Baazi Games has come on board as the co-presenting sponsor and ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund is the co-power sponsor on Disney+ Hotstar. A legion of national and international brands like Bajaj Allianz, Scaler Academy, Policy Bazaar, Paisa Bazaar, Club Mahindra, Coca Cola, HSBC, Maruti Suzuki, Uber, L’Oreal and Castrol have been signed as associate sponsors.
“The increasing curiosity surrounding the ICC World Test Championship Final between two cricket heavyweights is sure to generate excitement in the country. We have collaborated with advertisers from various domains, across Star Sports and Disney+ Hotstar to help them achieve their desired business objectives through this marquee event. The response has been overwhelming so far, resulting in the sale of all key features well in advance. We are optimistic about delivering an exhilarating tournament experience to our valued advertisers,” said Disney Star head of network Ad sales Ajit Varghese.
“Excited to announce Atomberg’s broadcast sponsorship of the World Test Championship final. Cricket on television has been an integral part of our media mix over the last 2 years and played a big role in scaling up our reach and awareness metrics, ultimately helping the business grow from 25 cr/month to 100 cr/month. And contrary to popular belief, if you can incorporate cricket intelligently in the media mix, it is not prohibitively expensive,” said Atomberg Technologies founding member & CBO Arindam Paul.
‘’At ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund, we are dedicated to empowering investors with our comprehensive range of mutual fund products. Through Disney+ Hotstar, during the upcoming ICC World Test Championship, we recognize the immense opportunity to engage with our target audience via Connected TV and mobile. Our aim is to generate brand awareness and encourage people to invest into mutual funds. Our association with Disney+ Hotstar ensures a seamless fusion of cricket’s exhilaration and the potential for financial growth,’’ said ICICI Prudential AMC head of marketing, digital & customer experience Abhijit Shah.
The ICC World Test Championship Final will commence from 7 to 11 June, 2023 and the tournament will be broadcasted live on Star Sports Network and Disney+ Hotstar.
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WhatsApp may soon let users to pick who sees their status updates
The messaging giant is borrowing a page from Instagram’s playbook as it pushes to give users finer control over their social circles.
CALIFORNIA: WhatsApp is quietly working on a feature that could make its Status function considerably smarter and considerably more private.
According to reports from beta tracking platforms, the app is testing a tool called Status lists, which would allow users to create named groups such as close friends, family and colleagues, and control precisely which group sees each update. It is a meaningful step up from the platform’s current blunt instruments, which offer only three options: share with all contacts, exclude specific people, or manually select individuals each time.
The new feature draws an obvious comparison with Instagram’s Close Friends function, and the resemblance is unlikely to be accidental. Both platforms sit within Meta’s family, and the company has been nudging them toward a common logic of audience segmentation for some time.
The move also fits neatly into WhatsApp’s broader privacy push. The platform has been rolling out enhanced chat protections and is exploring the introduction of usernames, which would allow users to connect without exchanging phone numbers. Status lists extend that philosophy from messaging into broadcasting.
Meanwhile, Status itself has been evolving well beyond its origins as a simple photo-and-text slideshow. The feature now supports music stickers, collages, longer videos and interactive elements, pushing it closer to the social-media-style story format pioneered by Snapchat and refined by Instagram. In that context, finer audience controls are not merely a privacy feature. They are a precondition for people sharing more.
The feature remains in development and has not been confirmed for release. WhatsApp routinely tests tools that are later modified or quietly shelved. But the direction of travel is clear: the app wants Status to be a destination, not an afterthought. Letting users decide exactly who is in the audience is how it gets there.
