iWorld
Facebook provides facilities for watching and sharing FIFA details
NEW DELHI: Even as millions of soccer fans from around the world will be glued to their television sets to watch the 2014 FIFA World Cup, many will join the conversation about the Cup on Facebook.
People come to Facebook during sporting events to connect and engage with friends who are following the action, to cheer their favourite teams and players, and to find out the latest scores and highlights.
For this year’s World Cup, Facebook is giving users one great place to experience the action in real time.
The social networking site has launched Trending World Cup, a dedicated hub for fans to follow the tournament as it unfolds. This includes the latest scores and highlights from the matches, a special feed with real-time posts from friends and updates from relevant players and teams, and an interactive map that shows where fans of some of the top players are located around the world.
In addition, users can share the specific matches they are watching during the World Cup — by simply tapping the smiley icon before sharing a post and selecting “watching.”
Over the course of the tournament, Trending World Cup can be found on Facebook by visiting www.facebook.com/worldcup. One can also get there by clicking on “World Cup” in the Trending section on the right-hand side of the news feed. If friends share that they are watching a specific match, a user can also get to Trending World Cup by clicking on their post.
iWorld
Banijay Asia’s The 50 tops OTT charts with 8.1 million JioHotstar views
Reality competition becomes most watched show on JioHotstar in debut week.
MUMBAI: Fifty contestants walked into a palace, but millions of viewers showed up for the drama. Reality competition The 50, produced by Banijay Asia, has emerged as the most watched show on JioHotstar, clocking 8.1 million views in its debut week. The figure, reported by Ormax Media, places the show at the top of the OTT viewership charts and marks a strong opening for the digital reality format.
Adapted from a popular French format, The 50 brings together 50 personalities from television, digital platforms, music and reality shows inside a grand palace setting. Over the course of a 50 day competition, participants form alliances, compete in unpredictable tasks and navigate eliminations as the field steadily narrows.
Guiding the game is a mysterious figure known as The Lion, an unseen game master whose voice introduces twists, challenges and strategic turns throughout the show, adding an extra layer of suspense to the contest.
What distinguishes The 50 from typical reality competitions is its audience driven prize structure. Instead of the winner taking home the final reward, the prize is awarded to one of the winner’s registered followers through the show’s dedicated app. The mechanism effectively turns viewers into participants, allowing fans to have a direct stake in the outcome.
The contestant lineup features a mix of television actors, reality stars and digital creators, including Karan Patel, Urvashi Dholakia, Divya Agarwal, Mr Faisu and Dushyant Kukreja, each bringing their own fan following to the show.
With its blend of celebrity personalities, strategic gameplay and interactive viewer participation, The 50 has quickly carved out a strong foothold in India’s digital entertainment landscape. Its 8.1 million views in the opening week underline the growing appetite for large scale reality formats designed specifically for OTT audiences.
