Gaming
Pearl Academy’s gaming extravaganza powered by Dell and Alienware
Mumbai: As part of its Techathon, Pearl Academy is hosting the much-awaited Dell Technologies and Alienware gaming event, across all its campuses. The Alienware Arena at Pearl Academy promises an immersive and unparalleled experience for gaming and tech enthusiasts at its Delhi campus on January 8, followed by Jaipur, Mumbai, and Bengaluru on January 12, 15, and 18, respectively. The one-day offline celebration will feature EA FC 24 and Mortal Kombat esports tournaments.
Dell and Alienware offer the best gaming experience to gamers and consumers in India. The Alienware and G-series range of powerful gaming devices reflect the companies’ core principles of bold innovation, high performance, iconic design, and premium quality.
Creating an adrenaline-pumping environment, the competition will offer thrilling showdowns with top-of-the-line Dell and Alienware gaming peripherals, including headsets, keyboards, and mice, up for grabs. Furthermore, every participant at the arena will receive exclusive Dell and Alienware merchandise, including t-shirts, caps, and wristbands as a token of appreciation.
The event will not only allow participants to showcase their skills but will also provide them an opportunity to interact and engage with gaming influencers like Aaditya D Sawant (Dynamo Gaming), Sahil Rana (AS Gaming), Anurag Singh (Game Flame), Mann Jain (TSG Mann) and Shashidhar M R (SMR Gaming).
Commenting on the partnership, Dell Technologies director of product marketing, consumer and small business India Pujan Chadha, “Dell Technologies and Alienware have always been at the forefront of redefining the gaming experience, and the Alienware Arena on the campuses of Pearl Academy is evidence of our efforts to grow our relationship with students and future gamers while providing top-notch experiences for everyone. The Alienware Arena further strengthens our engagement with the Indian gaming community and enthusiasts cementing our innovation and leadership in the industry.”
“As we set the stage for a thrilling experience during Techathon, we invite all the tech and gaming enthusiasts to join us in celebrating the shared love and passion for the world of gaming and technology. The Alienware Arena is a platform to not only showcase your skills but also a chance to forge connections and witness the boundless possibilities that the world of gaming and technology holds. Being a part of this event reaffirms our commitment to foster creativity, and technological excellence and inspire the next generation of gamers and tech leaders,” said Pearl Academy president Aditi Srivastava.
Gaming
India’s broadcasters say no to Fifa World Cup 2026
Fifa has slashed its asking price by 65 per cent but India’s broadcasters are still not buying
MUMBAI: The world’s biggest sporting event cannot find a single taker in the world’s most sports-mad nation. Fifa’s television rights for the 2026 World Cup remain unsold in India, and the clock is ticking loudly.
To shift the property, world football’s governing body has already swallowed hard and cut its asking price from $100m to $35m, bundling in the 2030 edition as a sweetener. It has not worked. Indian broadcasters have looked at the offer, done the sums and quietly walked away.
The reasons are brutally simple. The 2026 tournament, co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico, kicks off in a time zone that turns India’s primetime into a graveyard shift. Most matches will air between midnight and 7am IST, a scheduling catastrophe for advertisers chasing mass reach. The 2022 Qatar edition was a gift by comparison, with matches dropping neatly into Indian evenings. North America offers no such luxury.
The market itself has also changed beyond recognition. The merger of Star India and Viacom18 into JioStar has gutted the competitive tension that once sent sports rights prices soaring. Where rival bidders once slugged it out, there is now a single dominant buyer, and it is in no hurry. JioStar has valued the rights at roughly $25m, a full $10m below Fifa’s already-discounted floor price. That gap has so far proved unbridgeable.
Broadcasters are also nursing a ferocious cricket hangover. Between 2022 and 2023, Indian media houses committed well over $10bn to cricket rights alone, covering IPL, ICC events and BCCI domestic fixtures combined. After a binge of that scale, appetite for a football package that delivers a fraction of the ratings, in the dead of night, is close to zero.
The economics of football broadcasting make the maths even harder. Cricket, with its natural breaks every few overs, is an advertiser’s paradise. Football offers a 15-minute halftime and precious little else. Recovering a nine-figure rights fee from a single half-hour ad window is a stretch at the best of times. These are not the best of times: the Indian government’s tightening grip on real-money gaming and gambling advertising has vaporised a category that once underwrote the economics of big sporting events.
Nor is the World Cup an anomaly. Indian Super League valuations have cratered. English Premier League rights have softened across successive cycles. The cooling of football as a broadcast commodity in India is structural, not cyclical.
With the tournament opening on 11th June, Fifa is running out of road. It may yet blink and meet JioStar at $25m. Or it may go direct, streaming the entire tournament on its own platform, Fifa+, or cutting a digital deal with YouTube, and hoping that a generation of Indian football fans finds its way there without a broadcaster to guide them.
Either way, the beautiful game’s Indian chapter is looking decidedly ugly.
