iWorld
Voot announces eight sponsors for ‘Bigg Boss OTT’
Mumbai: Viacom18’s Voot on Thursday announced that it has brought on board eight sponsors for “Bigg Boss OTT”. After Swiggy and CoinDCX joined as ‘co-powered by’ sponsors, the OTT platform roped in Vimal Elaichi, MX TakaTak, Netmeds, H&M, Durex, and Lotus Herbal as sponsors.
Vimal Elaichi has come on board as ‘presenting’ partner, MX TakaTak as ‘social media’ partner, H&M as ‘style’ partner, Netmeds as ‘pharmacy’ partner, Durex as ‘special’ partner, and Lotus Herbal as ‘beauty’ partner for the show.
Voot has driven deeper brand integration for sponsors of the show. For example, the sponsor Vimal Elaichi will leverage the ‘Bigg Boss’ fandom to connect and interact with viewers through IPs like ‘Video Vichaar’ and ‘Extraa Masala’ giving the brand more exposure throughout the reality series, said the platform in a statement. “While ‘Video Vichaar’ will enable viewers to share thoughts and opinions around daily developments within the house, ‘Extraa Masala’ is a successful content around content IP that traditionally attracts hordes of fans who can’t keep away from the ‘Bigg Boss’ phenomena,” it added.
“Bigg Boss has grown to become a celebrated proposition for brands to connect and engage with viewers. Given the multi-touchpoint offering, the interest the show generates is unlike any other,” said Viacom18 Digital Ventures’ chief operating officer, Gourav Rakshit. “The diverse brands that have come on board as sponsors, some of whom have joined the Bigg Boss family for the first time in this exciting edition, is testimony to the popularity of the show.”
“We are delighted to come on board as the presenting partner of Bigg Boss OTT – a new, pioneering idea for an OTT platform in India. Vimal has always been associated with shows and IPs that have a large mass audience connect; testimony to that are our brand ambassadors Ajay Devgn and Shah Rukh Khan,” said Vimal Elaichi in a statement.
“With this exciting partnership, we bring reality television to short videos as well! Bigg Boss OTT shows the real side of celebrities to its viewers while MX TakaTak offers a great platform and encourages users, creators, digital enthusiasts to showcase their real talent across different genres. The natural content synergies that both platforms drive make it a win-win for us and we believe this will make for a great content fit for our users,” said MX TakaTak, business head, Janhavi Parikh.
With Karan Johar as the host and 13 contestants, the show launched on 8 August exclusively on the digital platform. The season premiere episode witnessed viewers tuning in from across India registering the highest numbers of subscriber tune-in for a ‘Bigg Boss’ opening to date, according to the OTT player.
“Bigg Boss OTT” airs every Monday to Friday at 7 p.m and on weekends at 8 p.m exclusively on Voot.
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.
