iWorld
Tata Play Binge welcomes Fuse+ onboard
Mumbai: Tata Play Binge – one of India’s largest OTT app aggregators, added a new partner to its vast portfolio of aggregated OTT apps. The latest entrant Fuse+ is a platform dedicated to empowering and entertaining young, multicultural and millennial audiences with concepts that resonate with their unique perspectives. Fuse+ is one of the top 10 multicultural and youngest US entertainment networks, that now wishes to reach out to like-minded Indian viewers through Tata Play Binge.
Fuse+ features original series, documentaries and films that aim at positively shifting the audience perspective by motivating and elevating unheard and unseen stories. The channel also showcases superstars and emerging talent in a collection of music specials and unscripted series. With its vibrant programming like Big Freedia Means Business featuring Grammy-winning artist Big Freedia, T-Pain’s School of Business, We Need to Talk About America, Like a Girl, Upcycle Nation, and biographies spotlighting artists such as Dua Lipa, Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift, BTS, and Coldplay, the platform gives its viewers access to 500 plus hours of original content and along with 30 hours of new licensed content per year.
Commenting on the new partnership, Tata Play’s chief commercial and content officer, Pallavi Puri said “Fuse+’s programming is diverse, differentiated, and contemporary. We are delighted to have them onboard, as more and more viewers are looking to expand their entertainment choices. Viewers on Tata Play Binge today are spoilt for choice as content from 25 plus OTT apps is available through a single subscription and single log in. With each new partner addition, the idea is to make space for new content and find its right audience match.”
“With a programming slate that serves as an entertainment destination for so many viewers, partnering with Tata Play Binge was a natural fit for Fuse Media as we continue our global expansion,” said Fuse Media chairman and CEO Miguel Roggero. “Fuse+’s library is made up of vibrant, culturally diverse stories, and we’re thrilled to introduce our empowering original programming and music-focused specials to Indian viewers.”
Fuse+ is represented by Brandwith, a premier representative and distribution company in the Asia Pacific region.
Fuse+ will join other popular OTT platforms on Tata Play Binge like Disney+ Hotstar, Apple TV+, ZEE5, SonyLIV, Jio Cinema, Hallmark, MX Player, Lionsgate Play, Aha, VROTT, Sun NXT, ReelDrama, Chaupal, Namma Flix, Planet Marathi, manoramaMAX, iStream, Tarang Plus, Hungama Play, Eros Now, ShemarooMe, Curiosity Stream, EPIC ON, Travelxp, DocuBay, ShortsTV, Playflix, KliKK along with Gaming. Content from all these platforms is available to the viewers of Tata Play Binge through a single subscription and a single user interface. Netflix and Amazon Prime Video plans are available for Tata Play DTH subscribers. Viewers can enjoy all 25+ apps on large-screen connected devices through Tata Play Binge+ Android Set Top Box, Tata Play edition of the Amazon FireTV Stick and www.TataplayBinge.com.
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.
