iWorld
ShortsTV enters Nepal with local partnerships
KOLKATA: SVoD platform ShortsTV has forayed into Nepal in partnership with leading DTH platform DishHome and cable TV operator SimTV. With this, ShortsTV is the first ever curated platform for short stories and films in Nepal, providing over 900 hours of unconventional and captivating short format stories.
The service will be available to all subscribers as part of the Basic Pack and will feature a promising line-up of 4,000+ premium titles, including the best of Oscars, BAFTA and Cannes along with popular Indian short films. Subscribers can look forward to an exciting mix of award winning and nominated short films covering a variety of genres including comedy, drama, thriller, mystery, crime and adventure amongst others in specially curated one-hour programming blocks. This premium offering will be available to subscribers as a linear channel on their television and the buddy mobile app of DishHome.
ShortsTV chief executive Carter Pilcher said, “As viewing habits evolve, & time being a rare commodity, viewers are preferring complete storytelling in a short dose. As such, short films have seen a huge surge in popularity across the globe including in India. We are introducing our choicest shorts to the Nepal market and are ramping up the regional content on our platform. We are on a quest to further strengthen our presence in Asia and the entry into Nepal marks the second country in our Asian portfolio.”
ShortsTV’s library of short films includes international finds like Skin, Bear Story, Friend request pending, Henry, Inseparable, Shackled, The Voorman Problem, Swimsuit 46 and others. It also includes some of the most popular Indian short films starring Bollywood celebrities like Kajol, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Radhika Apte, Rajkumar Rao, Nasseruddin Shah, Jackie Shroff such as Chutney, Ahalya, Shunyata, Devi, Rogan Josh, Zahida, Carbon, Uss Din among others.
ShortsTV Asia president Tarun Sawhney said, “With the recent digitisation and boom in content consumption, storytelling has transcended language and geographical barriers and found audiences among people who truly appreciate good cinema. The same goes for short films. With the expansion of ShortsTV, we are introducing the world’s largest library of high-quality curated shorts to one country at a time and we are sure of the success that awaits shortbusters with our every next step.”
ShortsTV is already available in over 100 million homes across the US, India, Latin America, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Eastern Europe. In India, ShortsTV is available as a value-added service across all leading DTH platforms including Tata Sky, Dish TV, D2H and Airtel Digital TV. The platform has also forayed into OTT streaming with its recent partnership with Airtel Xstream App.
iWorld
WhatsApp may soon let users to pick who sees their status updates
The messaging giant is borrowing a page from Instagram’s playbook as it pushes to give users finer control over their social circles.
CALIFORNIA: WhatsApp is quietly working on a feature that could make its Status function considerably smarter and considerably more private.
According to reports from beta tracking platforms, the app is testing a tool called Status lists, which would allow users to create named groups such as close friends, family and colleagues, and control precisely which group sees each update. It is a meaningful step up from the platform’s current blunt instruments, which offer only three options: share with all contacts, exclude specific people, or manually select individuals each time.
The new feature draws an obvious comparison with Instagram’s Close Friends function, and the resemblance is unlikely to be accidental. Both platforms sit within Meta’s family, and the company has been nudging them toward a common logic of audience segmentation for some time.
The move also fits neatly into WhatsApp’s broader privacy push. The platform has been rolling out enhanced chat protections and is exploring the introduction of usernames, which would allow users to connect without exchanging phone numbers. Status lists extend that philosophy from messaging into broadcasting.
Meanwhile, Status itself has been evolving well beyond its origins as a simple photo-and-text slideshow. The feature now supports music stickers, collages, longer videos and interactive elements, pushing it closer to the social-media-style story format pioneered by Snapchat and refined by Instagram. In that context, finer audience controls are not merely a privacy feature. They are a precondition for people sharing more.
The feature remains in development and has not been confirmed for release. WhatsApp routinely tests tools that are later modified or quietly shelved. But the direction of travel is clear: the app wants Status to be a destination, not an afterthought. Letting users decide exactly who is in the audience is how it gets there.
