Sports
Hulk Hogan joins TNA Wrestling
MUMBAI: Hulk Hogan is joining Total Non-Stop Action Wrestling (TNA).
In India, TNA airs on Star Sports.
TNA Wrestling president Dixie Carter says, “Hulk Hogan is one of the world‘s top pop culture icons and the biggest superstar in the history of professional wrestling. We are truly excited to welcome him into the TNA family. Our goal is to become the world‘s biggest professional wrestling company. Hulk defines professional wrestling and we look forward to partnering with him in a variety of ways as we continue to grow TNA globally.”
Hogan says, “I firmly believe now is the time for some change at TNA as they are positioned to jump to the next level in their development and I‘m here to work with Dixie to help make that a reality.”
Through Hogan‘s partnership with Bischoff Hervey Entertainment Television, the deal with TNA was negotiated by longtime Hogan colleague Eric Bischoff. Additionally, BHE TV has inked a first-look deal with TNA and will be working with the organisation to develop new programming extensions of the TNA brand.
Sports
 JioHotstar launches commerce ad tool with Instamart to convert IPL viewers into buyers
The platform launches intent-driven advertising with Instamart, aiming to turn cricket fans into customers
MUMBAI: Streaming ads are about to get a lot more pointed. JioHotstar has launched what it calls a signal-led commerce advertising capability, a system that uses real purchase intent data to help brands find consumers who are already primed to buy, not just browse. Instamart, Swiggy’s quick-commerce arm, becomes the first partner to use the offering, which goes live during the Indian Premier League cricket season when JioHotstar’s audiences are at their largest and most engaged.
The pitch to advertisers is precision over volume. Rather than serving ads based on broad demographic slices, the new capability lets brands tap aggregated, privacy-safe insights drawn from actual purchase behaviour to identify and reach high-intent audience cohorts across JioHotstar’s premium content. Crucially, it also closes the loop: consumers can move directly from content to product exploration through integrated call-to-action formats, without leaving the viewing experience. Advertisers, in turn, get down-funnel reporting across key metrics, giving them a clearer read on what their campaigns actually did.
Anup Govindan, head of sports sales at JioStar, said the offering goes beyond watching to predicting what consumers are likely to do next. “We are enabling brands to engage audiences not just when they are watching, but when they are most receptive,” he said. “During marquee events like the TATA IPL, brands can reach the right audience at the right moment, making engagement more meaningful, measurable, and outcome-driven.”
Himavant Kurnala, senior vice-president of product at Instamart, said the partnership closes the gap between inspiration and purchase. “By aligning premium entertainment with the convenience of quick commerce, we are not just placing ads; we are creating a more relevant and frictionless shopping experience for millions of Indian households,” he said.
The launch adds to a growing suite of precision tools on JioHotstar, which already offers self-serve ads and a Shop The Look feature. With 450 million monthly average users and a library of more than 300,000 hours of programming across 19 languages, the platform has no shortage of eyeballs. The question it is now answering is whether it can turn those eyeballs into wallets.
For brands, the timing is no accident. Cricket season on JioHotstar is the closest thing Indian advertising has to the Super Bowl, a moment of mass attention that the platform is now determined to monetise with considerably more finesse than a banner ad ever could.
