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StarHub, mioTV launch new sports promotions
MUMBAI: In a bid to lure and retain its subscribers, Star Hub and mioTV have announced new sports promotions after it was decided to move Barclays Premier League action from StarHub to IPTV service mioTV next year.
StarHub lost the rights of English Premier League (EPL) to mioTV in the bidding war as well as carriage of the ESPN Star Sports (ESS) channels that are also moving to SingTel‘s IPTV service.
StarHub is planning a new 24-hour sports channel that will be available for free to its entire cable TV base from January 2010. From July 2010, meanwhile, the platform will deliver Eurosportnews, which is presently offered as part of StarHub‘s Sports Group as a basic service to all subscribers.
Comments StarHub‘s VP of home solutions Ong Bee Lian, “With the addition of the two sports channels to our complimentary lineup, StarHub TV customers can enjoy as many as 26 channels at entry level. This works out to less than a dollar per month for each channel.”
Meanwhile, the cable platform is dropping the price of its Sports Group package by more than 50 per cent in July, ahead of the new EPL season.
From July 2010, the Sports Group will comprise Football Channel, SuperSports, SuperSports Plus, Sports HD, Goal TV 1, Goal TV 2, Golf Channel, Eurosport, La Liga on-demand and WWE on demand.
SingTel‘s mioTV is already looking to attract fans of EPL with new early bird specials. For a limited period, customers who sign up for either the Barclays Premier League 2010/11 season or Barclays Premier League 2010/11 with ESPN Star Sports Channels on a 12-month subscription basis will receive the Football Frenzy Pack (worth S$15.90 per month) for free till 31 July.
This includes UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League matches, live and on demand, over TV, mobile phone and online, as well as the Italian Serie A matches.
The promotional offer also includes a 30-day preview of all mio TV programmes (excluding movies and video-on-demand content), free installation, a high-definition set-top box and an ADSL2+ modem. Customers who sign up for the sports pack will also gain access to ESPN Star Sports channels-ESPN, Star Sports and ESPNews as and when they become available.
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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.
