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HBO to go to Nordic region via streaming
MUMBAI: HBO Nordic, the newly formed joint venture of HBO and Parsifal International, will launch its linear and on-demand premium pay TV service mid-October in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland.
This is a web-only service and does not require the customer to be signed up with a pay TV service such as cable or satellite. Its competition will be with Netflix which is also expected to launch in the region.
As the first HBO-branded service in the region, HBO Nordic will offer a premium ad-free channel. HBO will offer both subscription and transactional video-on-demand services, providing premium content directly to consumers via HBO Nordic‘s untethered, “over-the-top” platform, hbonordic.com, and also via local distribution partners.
HBO Nordic CEO Herv?© Payan said, “We saw a rapid change in Nordic TV consumption these past years. Our target group is younger and more urban than the existing premium pay TV subscribers and they consume TV on multiple screens, particularly on computers, smartphones and tablets. Most of them associate HBO with best in class series. We view this as a unique opportunity for HBO to grow digital pay-TV subscriptions in the region”.
HBO Nordic will offer subscribers all seasons and behind- the-scene materials of hit series, including ‘Boardwalk Empire‘, ‘The Newsroom‘, ‘Game of Thrones‘ and ‘True Blood‘. The HBO Nordic offering will also include feature films from major Hollywood and international studios, local distributors and independents.
Herv?© Payan said, “HBO Nordic is the first service in the Nordic countries to combine day-and-date delivery and streaming of the latest episodes of an HBO original series subtitled in the local language, with all past seasons. This service will be available on any internet connected device”.
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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.
