Applications
Zee Cafe & idubba launch new app ‘icouch’
MUMBAI: Zee cafe in partnership with idubba has launched a mobile app for the viewers who use android phones.
Christened as ‘icouch‘, the launch of this app is in line with the channels objective of expanding its viewer base through the new season of American television drama series ‘Grey‘s Anatomy‘ which will be telecast on 1 May. The show will be aired on every Monday to Friday at 10.00 pm.
The channel is providing a platform for the viewers to chat with each other real time via an interactive chat room.
Touted as first of its kind, this app will enable viewers to chat with friends about the show, play contests, win prizes, take up quizzes and see their conversation Live on TV while the show is on air. The attempt is to unite all the fans of Grey‘s Anatomy on a common platform and keep them glued to the show.
Zee Cafe brings season seven, eight and nine of the medical series.
Zee niche channels business head Anurag Bedi said, “Given the popularity of Grey‘s Anatomy in India we want to give the viewers a chance to participate while watching the show. The rate at which various communication vehicles are seeing a decline, this initiative was taken to give the viewers a personalised bite into their TV viewing experience. This differentiated app has been developed in a creative and nimble way to get viewers talking about the show real time. With majority of urban population now making a shift to smart phones, creating such an app was an obvious choice for engagement for this kind of a show.”
idubba co-founder Rabi Gupta further added, “iCouch is definitely not another news or gossip outlet where we report things or events, in-fact here the news and gossip makers and breakers are the ardent fans of the TV show. It is a chat forum that has no bar, you are the one building and developing the discussion of your favourite show. It enables your thoughts be known not only to your friends and mutual lovers of the show but also to the cast and the crew of the show. iCouch is a platform that makes the current TV viewing scenario more charged up with entertainment, live gossips, snip-bits and chats.”
Applications
Inshorts Group chief Deepit Purkayastha joins IAB video council for Southeast Asia and India
The co-founder and chief executive of the short-form content platform has been inducted into the IAB SEA+India Video Council, giving India a stronger voice in shaping digital video frameworks
NOIDA: India has long been the world’s most chaotic, multilingual and mobile-first digital market. Now, one of its most prominent short-video executives is getting a seat at the table where the rules are written.
Deepit Purkayastha, co-founder and chief executive of Inshorts Group, has been selected as a member of the IAB SEA+India Video Council for 2026. Run by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, the council brings together senior leaders from Southeast Asia and India to shape standards, best practices and measurement frameworks for the fast-evolving video and digital advertising ecosystem.
The timing is pointed. According to the IAMAI-Kantar Internet in India Report 2025, over 588 million Indians are now consuming short-video content, with growth increasingly driven by rural and non-metro audiences. India’s active internet user base has crossed 950 million, with 57 per cent of users now coming from rural markets. Yet the frameworks that govern how video consumption is measured and monetised were largely designed for single-language, Western markets and have struggled to keep pace with the scale, diversity and complexity of India’s digital landscape.
Purkayastha is no stranger to these debates. He already serves on the AI Council at Marketing and Media Alliance India and as co-chair of the Digital Entertainment Committee at the Internet and Mobile Association of India. His induction into the IAB SEA+India Video Council extends that influence into the global video standards arena.
Inshorts Group sits squarely at the intersection of these forces. Its flagship product, Inshorts, India’s highest-rated short news app, reaches 12 million active users with 60-word news summaries. Its sister platform, Public App, reaches 80 million monthly active users across more than 700 districts and 12 languages, serving communities that most global platforms barely register.
Purkayastha said the opportunity was about building something more representative. “India today sits at the centre of the global video ecosystem, but the frameworks that define how value is created and measured have not always kept pace with the realities of our market,” he said. “Being part of the IAB SEA+India Video Council is an opportunity to contribute to a more representative and future-ready approach, one that accounts for diversity in language, context, and user intent.”
As a council member, Purkayastha will contribute to shaping regional standards across video advertising, measurement and platform governance, with a focus on frameworks that are native to India’s multilingual, mobile-first ecosystem rather than imported from global benchmarks designed elsewhere.
For years, India has been content to play by rules written for other markets. Purkayastha’s induction is a signal that it is done waiting to be consulted and ready to start writing them.
