iWorld
Vodafone TV expands footprint in nine countries
Mumbai: Vodafone’s multi-tenant cloud TV service – Vodafone TV has expanded its footprint in as many as nine countries across the globe. The service’s latest launch in Germany has further bolstered its reach to two million subscribers worldwide.
Kaltura, the video experience cloud that has strengthened Vodafone TV since its inception in 2014 has announced that its Kaltura TV Platform is set to expand Vodafone TV into new markets.
The Kaltura-powered service is accessible to users in all of Vodafone’s networks and in Unitymedia’s cable network. The service was launched in Germany in February 2021 and is offered under the brand “GigaTV”. The German launch follows earlier Vodafone TV launches in Hungary and Czech Republic in 2020. The service is also LIVE in Romania, Portugal, Greece, New Zealand, Spain and Italy, bringing the total to nine active Vodafone TV markets today, all powered by Kaltura technology.
“Seven years ago, we selected Kaltura as our Cloud TV partner because its vision of innovation fits perfectly with ours; together we’ve built a Cloud TV platform that combines the best of OTT and pay-TV into a single service,” said Vodafone group head of video Wolfgang Zeller. “The flexibility, agility and scalability of Kaltura’s future-ready TV Platform is enabling Vodafone TV to reap all the advantages of being a single, cloud-based service available in many markets around the world via a range of network architectures and across devices.”
The Kaltura TV Platform enables Vodafone operating companies to efficiently and quickly launch Vodafone TV within their countries, said the company, highlighting its single, cloud-based system, upgrades and new features that can be introduced across the global Vodafone TV service in a unified way.
“We are honored to support Vodafone TV’s expansion into new territories and congratulate Vodafone for most recently going live in Germany, a key Vodafone TV market,” said Kaltura co-founder CEO and chairman Ron Yekutiel. “Vodafone continues to lead the market in creating a multi-country, full-featured Cloud TV solution that we are proud to power with our technology.”
e-commerce
Instamart gold dig event at Hussain Sagar goes viral
Hyderabad activation ties to gold price lock offer ahead of Akshaya Tritiya
MUMBAI: All that glitters isn’t just gold, it’s also great marketing. A quirky on-ground activation by Instamart at Hussain Sagar Lake has turned into a viral spectacle, with videos of people digging for gold coins flooding social media feeds this week. The campaign, executed in collaboration with Moms, transformed a patch of the city’s iconic lakefront into what online users quickly dubbed a “mini gold rush”. Armed with spades, participants dug through a mud-filled pit in search of hidden gold coins, an activity that drew crowds, cameras and plenty of commentary online, ranging from amused disbelief to outright fascination.
At the heart of the frenzy was a promotional push for Instamart’s ‘Gold Price Lock’ feature, which allows users to secure prevailing gold rates between April 10 and April 16 and complete their purchase later during Akshaya Tritiya, a period traditionally associated with high gold buying. The mechanic cleverly blended physical participation with digital conversion, turning curiosity into a potential transaction.
Branded as ‘Gold Diggers’, the activation leaned into gamified engagement. Those who struck lucky walked away with coins, those who didn’t were nudged with a simple message: lock the price now, buy later. The result was a steady stream of footfall and a surge in user-generated content, as onlookers and participants alike documented the spectacle.
The timing is significant. India remains one of the world’s largest consumers of gold, with demand peaking around Akshaya Tritiya. Data from the World Gold Council suggests the festival alone accounts for roughly 25–30 tonnes of gold purchases annually, making it a high-stakes window for brands looking to tap into consumer sentiment.
As the ‘Gold Price Lock’ feature remains live until April 16, the campaign has already done its job turning a simple product feature into a citywide moment. Because sometimes, the quickest way to get people talking about gold isn’t to sell it, it’s to make them dig for it.
