iWorld
Facebook US planning to broadcast live sporting events
MUMBAI: Facebook is actively looking at increasing its sports presence by launching its new Facebook Live service.
Speaking at a Sportel Tech Panel session on Social Video, Facebook global head of strategic partner development – sports media Rob Shaw pointed that the recent introduction of the Facebook Live service had altered the dynamics of its relationships with sporting rights holders.
According to Independent, a UK based online news portal, Facebook has recently launched a new platform for video content in the US called ‘Watch’. Facebook has two billion users a month and that at least 650 million of those are sports fans, with another 200 million on its picture-sharing platform Instagram.
“Facebook is a phenomenal place to reach large audiences and we are now looking into and testing the possibility of actually broadcasting live sports content. It’s going to be a huge learning curve for us, for broadcasters, media companies, the leagues, because it’s not telephones, it’s different. It’s interactive, it’s social, it’s not a one-way conversation,” he added.
“So these are the things that we’re trying to work together with the leagues and gain their feedback on data and consumption so that we can understand what we can build in the future.”
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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.
