iWorld
ZEE5 continues the exclusive OTT partner for Mumbaicha Raja
Mumbai: ZEE5, India and Bharat’s home-grown video streaming platform and multilingual storyteller for multiple entertainment seekers is proud to announce its continued partnership with the iconic Mumbaicha Raja for the third consecutive year. From 7 – 17 September 2024, ZEE5 will be live-streaming Bappa’s darshan and aarti straight from the pandal on the platform, bringing the divine festivities of Ganesh Chaturthi directly to the screens of millions of viewers across India, at zero cost.
Speaking about the collaboration, ZEE5 India chief business officer Manish Kalra said, “We are excited to begin another year of festive celebrations, blessed by Mumbaicha Raja on ZEE5. As a top OTT platform with a strong presence in regional markets, we are dedicated to bringing the iconic Ganpati celebration at Mumbaicha Raja to millions of homes nationwide. I send my warmest wishes to all our viewers and invite them to enjoy the festivities from the comfort of their homes through ZEE5.”
ZEE5 offers a diverse range of high-quality content catering to its viewers, showcasing a selection of thoughtfully crafted narratives, including premium Marathi titles such as Dharmaveer: Mukkam Post Thane, Mulshi Pattern, Fatteshikast, Zombivli, Timepass 3, Gulabjaam, Timepass, Chi Va Chi Sau Ka, Ventilator, Anandi Gopal, among others.
https://www.zee5.com/live-tv/mumbaicha-raja/0-9-9z5210099
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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.
