iWorld
Kerala MSO Asianet launches regional OTT service
MUMBAI: This is for those folks who gorge on regional content – especially southern Indian language content. And can’t get enough of it.
Coming up is a mobile app or OTT service that offers them a 50 plus strong bouquet of select popular live TV channels in Malayalam, Tamil and other regional languages besides 100 internet radio channels. And it can be downloaded and played on both Android or iOs devices.
Called Asianet Mobile TV+, the OTT service has been launched by leading Kerala-based cable TV and broadband service provider in Kerala Asianet Satellite Communciations. It can be downloaded from the Google Play store or Apple App Store. Registration and activation can be done at http://asianetmobiletv.com.
The OTT platform’s bouquet consists of a mix of channels offering entertainment, news, travel, lifestyle and spiritual segments channels, company officials were reported as saying. The TV channels that are listed on its web site as being part of the subscription pack include: Asianet, ACV, Kairali, Sakhi, Janam, FlowersTV, Jeevan, Amrita, Kamudy, Kappa, People, Reporter, Shalom, Polimer, Captain TV, Kalaignar, Vasanth, Murasu, Enter10, Sankara, and Music India. Hungama, Pling, Box UK are some of the internet radio streaming channels that subscribers can sign on for.
On offer are various subscription packs ranging from two months to six months and a year. But it is giving away a month’s free subscription of TV and radio channels.
“It’s our endeavour to entertain the non-resident Malayalee community across the world with our bouquet of popular Malayalam channels. We have made use of the latest technology to enable our viewers to experience the best of Malayalam home entertainment, any time, any where and to access content across multiple platforms. We would shortly be extending our services to other Indian languages also. Additional features like Catch-up TV / Movies, TV Shows, video on demand and live events are being incorporated soon into our OTT service,” says the Asianet Mobile website.
The company claims it is the first MSO in the country to launch an OTT service. It has partnered with XperioLabs as the platform for the mobile app service. Its management says it is readying to offer value added services through its OTT play to transform itself into a lifestyle services provider.
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.
