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EndemolShine India’s Bigg Boss Kannada season-ten delivers record ratings
Mumbai: The tenth season of Bigg Boss Kannada, aired on Colors Kannada, streamed on Voot, and hosted by Superstar Sudeep Kiccha, has outperformed all expectations, marking a milestone decade for the franchise in Karnataka, with the finale episode breaking all records with an 11.5 ratings, the highest of all seasons. Produced by EndemolShine India, the innovative promotion and positioning of the season paid off, with reality weekly ratings soaring to 7 and 8, the highest for any season of Bigg Boss Kannada. The launch episode itself garnered a 7.1 rating, becoming the second-highest-rated episode in the history of the show. As the season progressed, Bigg Boss Kannada became the number 1 show in Karnataka, leading the 9:30 to 11:00 slot.
Banijay Asia and EndemolShine India founder & group CEO Deepak Dhar expressed his excitement about the season’s performance, stating, “Bigg Boss Kannada Season 10 has been a remarkable journey, not just for us but for the entire Kannada-speaking audience. Celebrating a decade of Bigg Boss in Karnataka, we aimed to make this season extraordinary with ‘Happy Bigg Boss,’ and the response has been overwhelming. We are proud to lead the entertainment slot in Karnataka, and this success reinforces our commitment to delivering high-quality, engaging content, year after year.”
This season was introduced as ‘Happy Bigg Boss’, transforming the show into a 100-day festival for Karnataka. The innovative launch strategy involved 100 dedicated Bigg Boss fans using live voting pads on stage, rating contestants, and thus, determining team divisions and immediate eliminations right from the start. This unique approach, along with engaging weekly tasks and creative content, kept the audiences truly engaged.
Bigg Boss, an adaptation of Big Brother, continues to be a global entertainment phenomenon, airing in over 45 territories annually. In India, the franchise extends across multiple languages and geographies, including Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, and Malayalam, showcasing the wide appeal and versatility of the format.
eNews
PNB partners Kiwi to launch credit-enabled UPI for users
Targets 180 million customers; RuPay card offers 0.5 per cent to 1.5 per cent cashback
MUMBAI: Swipe, tap, or scan credit is quietly slipping into the rhythm of everyday payments, and Punjab National Bank wants in on the action. The state-run lender has partnered with Kiwi to roll out credit-enabled UPI payments for its 180 million customers, marking a significant push to blend traditional banking with India’s fast-evolving digital payments ecosystem.
At the centre of the collaboration is the launch of the PNB Kiwi Credit Card on the RuPay network. The card is designed with a digital-first approach, offering fully online onboarding and seamless integration with UPI, allowing users to transact via scan-and-pay while accessing credit.
The offering also brings in a rewards layer, with cashback ranging from 0.5 per cent to 1.5 per cent on online transactions, positioning the product as both a convenience play and a spending incentive.
The move comes as UPI continues to dominate India’s digital payments landscape, increasingly blurring the lines between debit-led transactions and credit access. For PNB, which operates over 10,000 branches around 60 per cent in semi-urban and rural areas, the partnership signals a targeted effort to extend formal credit to segments that have traditionally remained underserved.
The collaboration also reflects a broader industry shift, where banks and fintech platforms are converging to embed credit directly into payment flows, reducing friction while expanding access.
With RuPay credit cards gaining traction and UPI evolving beyond peer-to-peer transfers, the PNB–Kiwi tie-up positions both players at the intersection of scale, accessibility, and the next phase of digital finance in India.
