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Youku in online broadcast deal for soccer World Cup
MUMBAI: Chinese video site Youku.com has announced that FIFA and CCTV have jointly authorised Youku.com with online broadcast rights to all Fifa 2010 matches.
CCTV has also granted rights to Youku.com for on-demand broadcast of CCTV’s self-produced FIFA programmes.
With these agreements in hand, Youku says that it is now positioned to offer the most complete range of World Cup broadcasts of any online video site in China.
Youku.com’s new World Cup Channel will be dedicated to broadcast of matches as well as interactive activities for football fans. Programming will include match play, an extensive collection of highlights, background
information on teams, and much more. In addition, the Youku World Cup Channel will also broadcast all Fifa-related programming airing on CCTV.
Working with many of its over 2000 media partners, Youku will leverage both online and offline entertainment activities around the World Cup to encourage deeper participation from football fans.
During the Fifa season, Youku will also invite experts, entertainment stars and well-known figures from the world of sports as well as celebrities from the entertainment world to interact with Youku users.
According to the data provided by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), over 60 per cent of Chinese netizens followed the 2006 Fifa World Cup in Germany online. With more than three years of development, online video sites are better equipped than ever to offer marketing value, an excellent user experience, and deep level of user engagement for this long anticipated event.
With daily video views averaging over 200 million and 30 million unique visitors, Youku has established itself as the leading brand in China’s online video market, occupying more than half of the market by total time spent online. The World Cup Channel takes its place beside Youku’s other leading content channels — Youku Information, Box Office Hits, TV Serials, and Youku Entertainment.
Youku has also announced plans to host a conference in the near future, inviting brand advertisers and partners to discuss ways to best use Youku World Cup Channel for building brand value and developing optimal content.
With the Fifa license and Youku’s natural marketing advantage, Youku invites brand advertisers and partners to explore this opportunity.
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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.
