iWorld
Voot brings BBC’s famed non-scripted original about social media madness today
MUMBAI: Scaling a treacherous mountain pass, battling wildlife and river rapids in the forests and beating the gruelling desert sun – Can you survive and stay alive in these harsh, uninhabited terrains with the help of just a Smartphone and a data strong network?
Viacom 18’s video-on-demand streaming service Voot is all set to answer this question with the launch of India’s first-ever ‘Digital Survival Series’ and its newest original – Vodafone presents “Stupid Man Smart Phone” powered by Motorola.
Produced by BBC Worldwide Productions and hosted by the acclaimed actor and digital star Sumeet Vyas, the show will introduce the audience to a never seen before format in the history of Indian entertainment where a smart phone and a super network is the only means of survival.
This unique and engaging show is all set to premiere exclusively on 20 September on Voot .
Viacom18 Digital Ventures’ COO Gaurav Gandhi said: “Voot continues to take the leadership mantle on innovation with many pioneering initiatives across both content and technology. The latest Voot original, a category first, is one such initiative, that will offer a completely differentiated and engaging experience to our audience.”
Voot head of content Monika Shergill said “For the first time, an internationally recognised non-scripted format of this scale is being produced as a streaming original series. The show is unique with today’s social media madness at the heart of it. It’s the only show where followers of Sumeet and his partners participate and aid in their survival choices. This unique concept with its social engagement potential, grandeur and edgy humour is sure to provide an immersive entertainment experience to all.”
A winner of the ‘Best Multi-Platform Format’ at the 2017 International Format Awards in Cannes earlier, this Indian adaptation of the BBC Worldwide format features Vyas and a celebrity guest travelling across three unforgiving terrains, trying to complete the mission at hand while being aided by their smartphones and their legions of social media followers.
BBC Worldwide SVP and GM – south-east Asia and south Asia Myleeta Aga said: “India is the first country in Asia that will air the Indian version of this BBC format and we will be producing it for our long-standing partners at Viacom.”
Vodafone EVP – marketing Siddharth Banerjee said,“Vodafone is happy to partner with content that is new-age and digital. It’s is a show with connectivity at the heart of the storytelling. The format enables the protagonists to #MakeMostOfNow with the Vodafone Data Strong Network™ and navigate challenges as they traverse diverse geographies across India in the Voot show.”
Motorola India head of marketing Rachna Lather said, “The viewers will see how much fun Sumeet and his friends have using the Moto Z2 play with Moto mods while performing the tough challenges”.
Along with their inimitable personality, each celebrity guest also brings to the show their extensive social media fan base which coupled with Vyas’s massive internet following makes for relevant and often crucial interactions through all the episodes.
In the lush rainforests of South India, Vyas teams up with the vibrant Evelyn Sharma while the harsh Rajasthan desert sun beats down upon YouTube funny man Sahil Khattar and TV hearthrob Karan Kundra keeps Sumeet company in the untouched mountains of Arunachal Pradesh.
iWorld
Airtel crosses 650 million customers to cement its place as world’s second largest telco
The Indian telecoms giant, now spanning 15 countries, is chasing the top spot with satellites, smartphones and mobile money
NEW DELHI: Numbers like these do not come around often. Bharti Airtel has crossed 650 million customers, making it the world’s second largest telecom operator by mobile customer base, according to GSMA Intelligence. Only one rival sits ahead of it. The gap, Airtel intends to close.
Gopal Vittal, executive vice chairman of Bharti Airtel, was characteristically measured. “Achieving the milestone of 650 million customers to be the second largest operator globally is a great responsibility for us to serve our customers better every day,” he said. “Every customer interaction is an opportunity to earn trust and deliver value.”
The scale of the operation is striking. In India, Airtel serves over 368 million mobile customers and was the first operator to launch 5G Plus services. It now reaches over 13 million homes with high-speed internet and a further 15 million households through its Digital TV offering. Its enterprise arm, Airtel Business, runs mission-critical infrastructure across cybersecurity, cloud, IoT and SD-WAN, underpinned by over 400,000 route kilometres of subsea fibre and a string of green data centres. The company has also announced a push into non-banking financial services, using its data insights to offer personalised credit products through the Airtel app.
Africa tells an equally ambitious story. Airtel Africa serves over 179 million customers across 14 countries, with Airtel Money, its mobile financial platform, counting over 52 million users. In a continent where traditional banking remains out of reach for millions, Airtel Money is not a product. It is infrastructure.
Beyond terrestrial networks, Airtel is reaching upward. Partnerships with Eutelsat OneWeb and SpaceX give it access to a constellation of low earth orbit satellites, pushing high-speed, low-latency broadband to remote maritime, aviation and rural areas that cables will never reach.
Airtel’s networks now cover over two billion people across 15 countries. The company that began as an Indian mobile operator has become something rather larger. At 650 million customers and climbing, it is not finished yet.
