iWorld
Watcho partners with Fastway and Netplus
Mumbai – Watcho has partnered with Fastway and Netplus to introduce a comprehensive entertainment bundle with seamless connectivity. This strategic collaboration marks a significant expansion of Watcho’s regional footprint and addresses the growing demand for integrated entertainment solutions.
The newly launched bundle seamlessly combines Fastway’s IPTV services, Netplus’s high-speed internet, and Watcho’s extensive OTT content into a single, unified package. This holistic entertainment solution eliminates the need for multiple service providers and complex billing processes, offering customers a streamlined entertainment experience. Subscribers can access 500+ live TV channels, Including 100+ channels with popular regional content via IPTV Set-top-box, robust internet connectivity, and a diverse range of OTT content from top providers such as Hotstar, SonyLIV, ZEE5, Chaupal, and many more, all under one Watcho subscription.
The package features IPTV + Broadband Plans + Watcho OTT Bundles starting at Rs 598, providing an internet speed of 50 Mbps along with 500+ TV channels, a Catch-Up TV feature allowing users to access content up to 7 days, and content from 17 OTT apps. With this partnership, customers will benefit from simplified access to a wide array of entertainment through Watcho’s extensive content library and aggregated services from over 17 popular OTT platforms such as Disney+ Hotstar, Zee5, Sony Liv, Hungama Play, Chaupal, FanCode, Watcho Exclusives and many more, spanning genres like drama, romance, fantasy, and more.
Dish TV India Ltd. CEO Manoj Dobhal said, “At Dish TV and Watcho, we always aim to deliver exceptional value and convenience to our customers. Our partnership with Fastway and Netplus embodies this commitment by offering a seamless bundle that integrates IPTV, high-speed internet, and extensive OTT content. This all-in-one solution simplifies access to diverse entertainment and enhances convenience for our customers across Punjab. We hope this package meets the increasing demand for integrated entertainment solutions, aligning with our mission to provide high-quality experiences while expanding our footprint and addressing a variety of entertainment needs with unmatched ease and efficiency.”
Jujhar Group founder & chairman Gurdeep Singh commented, “We are excited about our partnership with Watcho. This launch represents a power-packed value proposition that both the brands proudly offer to its consumers. It delivers the most cost-effective and affordable form of entertainment. The brand is deeply committed to understanding and addressing the needs of its customers, consistently providing the best solutions tailored to enhance their viewing experience.”
“The IPTV STB will also facilitate access to OTT content, powered by Watcho, thereby presenting a variety of premium regional and national content from top providers. We hope this collaboration will simplify access to quality content and set a new standard for convenience and innovation in the entertainment industry,” added Singh.
Gaming
India’s broadcasters say no to Fifa World Cup 2026
Fifa has slashed its asking price by 65 per cent but India’s broadcasters are still not buying
MUMBAI: The world’s biggest sporting event cannot find a single taker in the world’s most sports-mad nation. Fifa’s television rights for the 2026 World Cup remain unsold in India, and the clock is ticking loudly.
To shift the property, world football’s governing body has already swallowed hard and cut its asking price from $100m to $35m, bundling in the 2030 edition as a sweetener. It has not worked. Indian broadcasters have looked at the offer, done the sums and quietly walked away.
The reasons are brutally simple. The 2026 tournament, co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico, kicks off in a time zone that turns India’s primetime into a graveyard shift. Most matches will air between midnight and 7am IST, a scheduling catastrophe for advertisers chasing mass reach. The 2022 Qatar edition was a gift by comparison, with matches dropping neatly into Indian evenings. North America offers no such luxury.
The market itself has also changed beyond recognition. The merger of Star India and Viacom18 into JioStar has gutted the competitive tension that once sent sports rights prices soaring. Where rival bidders once slugged it out, there is now a single dominant buyer, and it is in no hurry. JioStar has valued the rights at roughly $25m, a full $10m below Fifa’s already-discounted floor price. That gap has so far proved unbridgeable.
Broadcasters are also nursing a ferocious cricket hangover. Between 2022 and 2023, Indian media houses committed well over $10bn to cricket rights alone, covering IPL, ICC events and BCCI domestic fixtures combined. After a binge of that scale, appetite for a football package that delivers a fraction of the ratings, in the dead of night, is close to zero.
The economics of football broadcasting make the maths even harder. Cricket, with its natural breaks every few overs, is an advertiser’s paradise. Football offers a 15-minute halftime and precious little else. Recovering a nine-figure rights fee from a single half-hour ad window is a stretch at the best of times. These are not the best of times: the Indian government’s tightening grip on real-money gaming and gambling advertising has vaporised a category that once underwrote the economics of big sporting events.
Nor is the World Cup an anomaly. Indian Super League valuations have cratered. English Premier League rights have softened across successive cycles. The cooling of football as a broadcast commodity in India is structural, not cyclical.
With the tournament opening on 11th June, Fifa is running out of road. It may yet blink and meet JioStar at $25m. Or it may go direct, streaming the entire tournament on its own platform, Fifa+, or cutting a digital deal with YouTube, and hoping that a generation of Indian football fans finds its way there without a broadcaster to guide them.
Either way, the beautiful game’s Indian chapter is looking decidedly ugly.
