ITV

Category: iWorld

  • OTTplay strikes gold with Amazon Prime tie-up

    OTTplay strikes gold with Amazon Prime tie-up

    MUMBAI—OTTplay Premium joined hands with Amazon Prime to offer Prime Lite benefits to its customers, delivering unparalleled value. Amazon Prime Lite subscriptions will be available through OTTplay in two ways – through bundled offerings with OTTplay’s partner Internet Service Providers (ISPs) such as NetPlus, KCCL, NXT, Railtel, and more, making it even easier for users across 1000+ cities and towns in India to seamlessly access Prime Video’s high-quality content, and also enjoy other Prime Lite benefits through varied subscription plans with OTTplay, as well as a top-up at ₹799 per year for OTTplay Premium subscribers who can enhance their existing subscription with Prime Lite benefits.

    With this collaboration, OTTplay will provide its customers unlimited access to Prime Video’s premium entertainment that includes an extensive library of award-winning and blockbuster Indian and international Originals, TV shows, movies, and more, on a single device of their choice, in HD quality with ads. Prime members also enjoy benefits like free unlimited Same-Day/Next-Day delivery, special access to everyday Prime offers, exclusive access to shopping events like Prime Day, and early access to Amazon Great Indian Festival.

    “At Prime Video, we remain committed to making it even more convenient for customers across India to access our diverse library of Indian and international Originals, movies, series, and more,” said Prime Video India director & head of SVOD Business Shilangi Mukherji. “This collaboration with OTTplay not only further simplifies access to Prime Video’s high-quality content selection but also delivers additional shopping and shipping benefits through Prime Lite—from unlimited free One-day/Two-day delivery across millions of products to early access to exclusive deals, and much more.”

    OTTplay Co-founder & CEO Avinash Mudaliar said, “This is a significant moment for us. Prime Video is a global leader in entertainment and bringing it to our platform reflects our commitment to delivering the most comprehensive and accessible video streaming experience in India. We are certain that our customers will appreciate the exciting combination of entertainment and other Prime benefits offered through this collaboration.”

  • Nothing ropes in Hemant Kundavaram as India CFO to fuel growth

    Nothing ropes in Hemant Kundavaram as India CFO to fuel growth

    NEW DELHI: London-based technology firm Nothing has named Hemant Kundavaram as chief financial officer for its India unit, bolstering its leadership bench in what has become the company’s most critical market.

    A chartered accountant with more than 20 years’ experience across Ford India, IBM, Thomson Reuters, Rockwell Collins and, most recently, PMI Electromobility, Kundavaram will spearhead fundraising, capital-market strategy and investor relations for the brand.

    “Nothing’s journey so far has been remarkable. I’m excited to build a strong financial foundation that complements fast-paced growth and strengthens the brand’s India vision,” said Kundavaram.

    Nothing co-founder & India president Akis Evangelidis called India “at the core” of the firm’s global ambitions. “Hemant’s proven expertise will be instrumental as we scale rapidly and deepen our presence in India,” he added.

    The hire marks Nothing India’s second major leadership appointment after Evangelidis took charge as president. The smartphone maker has clocked a blistering 146 per cent year-on-year growth in Q2 2025, making it the fastest-growing brand in the segment for six consecutive quarters, according to Counterpoint Research.

  • ShareChat ropes in Neha Markanda as chief business officer

    ShareChat ropes in Neha Markanda as chief business officer

    MUMBAI: Homegrown social media firm ShareChat (Mohalla Tech) has named Neha Markanda as its new chief business officer, handing her the mandate to scale revenues and deepen advertiser engagement across its flagship ShareChat app and short-video platform Moj.

    Markanda joins from Google, where she spent over three years as head of industry for e-commerce. She earlier led business marketing at Facebook India, and held senior roles at GSK Consumer Healthcare, where she steered brand strategy for Horlicks and family nutrition.

    Her two-decade career spans consumer goods and technology, including stints at HCL Technologies, PepsiCo—where she managed Tropicana, Pepsi Max and Gatorade—and ITC.

    At ShareChat, she will be tasked with sharpening revenue strategy, strengthening advertiser partnerships and pushing growth in a market where short-video and vernacular social platforms are battling for both user attention and ad dollars.

  • Applause Entertainment marks eight years with bigger bets

    Applause Entertainment marks eight years with bigger bets

    MUMBAI: Eight years may seem young, but Kumarmangalam Birla-owned, Sameer Nair-led Applause Entertainment has already muscled into the top tier of India’s content business. Since its 2017 launch, the studio has churned out more than 50 original series, films and documentaries across every major streamer — from Netflix and Amazon Prime Video to Disney+ Hotstar, Zee5 and Sony Liv.

    Operating on what it calls a “hub and spoke” model, Applause invests upfront in content, collaborates with producers such as Banijay Asia, BBC Studios, Rose Audiovisuals and Emmay Entertainment, and then syndicates the finished work to platforms worldwide. Its catalogue includes both original dramas and Indian adaptations of acclaimed books and international formats.

    After shaking up the digital series  market, Applause has shifted gears into films with titles like Iftikaar, The Rapist and Aruvi. It has also launched Applause Productions, whose debut project is the Indian remake of Fauda. In animation, it has struck an exclusive deal with Amar Chitra Katha to reimagine 400-plus comics for global audiences and under the Appla Toon brand on YouTube.

    It recently partnered with author Jeffrey Archer to adapt his books into series or movies. 

    Nair has built a seasoned team backing him up, with Deepak Segal as chief creative officer, Prasoon Garg as chief business officer, Sunil Chainani heading films, Maansi Darrbar heading Applause Productions,  Siddharth Khaitan heading special projects like Gandhi and Scam, and Devnidhi Bajoria overseeing marketing.

    With scores of projects in the pipeline, the studio is plotting a push beyond India into documentaries, infotainment and even gaming.

    Eight years in, Applause is just clearing its throat. And loving the viewing audience’s critics’  applause.

  • Abhijit Kishore named Vodafone Idea’s new chief executive

    Abhijit Kishore named Vodafone Idea’s new chief executive

    MUMBAI: Vodafone Idea has appointed Abhijit Kishore as its new chief executive officer. A long-time company insider, Kishore has spent more than five years in senior roles at the struggling carrier, including chief operating officer and chief enterprise business officer.

    Before joining Vodafone Idea, he held leadership positions at Tata Teleservices and Reliance Communications, steering mobility, enterprise and circle operations across key markets. Over two decades in telecoms, Kishore has managed P&Ls from Kerala to Gujarat, notching up operational turnarounds and enterprise growth.

    An alumnus of Delhi University and the Fore School of Management, he has sharpened his management credentials with stints at IIM Ahmedabad and London Business School. His appointment comes as Vodafone Idea wrestles with heavy debt, a bruising price war and the need to raise capital for 5G roll-out.

  • Fancode teams up with Fabrizio Romano for Laliga’s independence day kick-off

    Fancode teams up with Fabrizio Romano for Laliga’s independence day kick-off

    MUMBAI: FanCode has marked Independence Day with a decisive strike for Indian football fans, unveiling an exclusive deal to stream every match of the Laliga EA Sports 2025/26 season. The platform has roped in world-famous football insider Fabrizio Romano to fire the starting gun, his trademark “Here We Go!” setting the tone for a season brimming with star power.

    For the first time, the Spanish league — home to Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, Atlético de Madrid and Sevilla FC — will be broadcast live and solely on FanCode in India, bringing names such as Kylian Mbappé, Lamine Yamal, Antoine Griezmann and Nico Williams into sharper local focus.

    FanCode says the timing is deliberate: Independence Day symbolises freedom, and the platform promises viewers the liberty to watch the beautiful game however, whenever and wherever they choose. 

    The tie-up with Romano, billed as the most trusted voice in football, is a step in FanCode’s push to expand India’s football audience and cement its place as the country’s go-to sports streaming destination.

  • Zee Media launches Pinewz, the citizen-led hyperlocal news app

    Zee Media launches Pinewz, the citizen-led hyperlocal news app

    MUMBAI: In a break from the top-down model of legacy newsrooms, Zee Media Corp has rolled out Pinewz, billed as India’s first hyperlocal, citizen-led news app. Timed with the seventy ninth Independence Day, the platform invites Indians to be both reporter and editor—capturing life as it happens in mohallas, markets, campuses and street corners.

    Rooted in the credo You are the reporter. You are the editor, Pinewz lets news flow from the ground up, not the other way round. Stories are geo-tagged to users’ Pin codes, offering highly localised feeds and a sharper barometer of public sentiment.

    To keep speed from killing accuracy, each report runs through an AI engine with blockchain-backed verification and editorial checks. “Pinewz is not just an app. It’s a movement that unites the digital citizen and the grassroots reporter,” said Pinewz chief business officer & director Priyadarshan Garg.

    The model, already tested in a pilot across several cities, has yielded stories on neglected infrastructure, civic hazards and emergencies—some triggering action before official response. Users can see their verified reports rise from neighbourhood news to state and national coverage.

    Zee Media says this is journalism “of the people, by the people, for the people” in the most literal sense. The only agenda: real issues, real voices, and real change.

  • Vodafone bets big on AI with veteran’s promotion to digital HR chief

    Vodafone bets big on AI with veteran’s promotion to digital HR chief

    LONDON: Vodafone has elevated Purwa Rathor to global senior human resources product manager for digital and artificial intelligence, promoting a 17-year company veteran as the telecoms giant accelerates its push into AI-powered workplace solutions.

    Rathor, who joined Vodafone in 2008, will spearhead the rollout of AI-driven HR technologies including Microsoft Copilot and experimental “agentic AI” assistants designed to handle everything from interview scheduling to maternity queries. The promotion marks Vodafone’s latest attempt to harness artificial intelligence for competitive advantage in an industry grappling with mounting cost pressures.

    Her track record suggests the appointment is more than corporate window-dressing. As global candidate experience manager, Rathor delivered a 50 per cent reduction in cost-per-hire and time-per-hire, while boosting application rates by 80 per cent across 28 countries. She also improved diversity hiring by 34 per cent and lifted candidate satisfaction scores by 58 points.

    The promotion comes as traditional telecoms operators face intensifying competition from digital-native rivals and pressure to slash operational costs. Vodafone’s bet on AI-powered HR automation reflects broader industry efforts to extract efficiency gains from back-office functions.

    Rathor’s career spans from financial services training roles at ICICI Prudential and India Infoline to nearly two decades architecting Vodafone’s talent acquisition systems. Her experience navigating complex regulatory environments—including negotiations with German and Spanish works councils—may prove crucial as AI deployment raises fresh concerns about worker surveillance and algorithmic bias.

    Whether Vodafone’s AI ambitions translate into sustainable cost savings or merely create new technological dependencies remains an open question. For now, the company appears willing to gamble on internal promotion over external expertise as it races to digitise its workforce operations.

  • Media veteran Kumar Ahuja takes the helm at AI upstart Eros Innovation

    Media veteran Kumar Ahuja takes the helm at AI upstart Eros Innovation

    MUMBAI: Kumar Ahuja, a seasoned entertainment industry executive, has been appointed chief operating officer at Eros Innovation, a global technology holding company positioning itself at the intersection of artificial intelligence and media.

    Ahuja brings nearly three decades of experience to the role, having most recently served as chief revenue officer at Sony Music Entertainment from December 2023 to August 2025. Before that, he spent over 26 years at Eros International, where he held various leadership positions including chief operating officer and president of business development.

    Eros Innovation describes itself as a technology holding company with ambitions spanning AI, media, entertainment, sports, education and bio-life sciences. The firm serves as parent company to Immerso AI and other subsidiaries, claiming to leverage four decades of investment expertise to back disruptive technologies.

    The company boasts 1.5 trillion AI tokens and operates AI data parks in Malaysia and GIFT City, India. It positions these facilities as innovation hubs for cutting-edge AI research with a particular focus on entertainment applications.

    Ahuja’s appointment comes as traditional media companies grapple with the rapid advancement of AI technologies. His extensive background in strategic partnerships and business development at major entertainment firms may prove valuable as Eros Innovation seeks to bridge the gap between established media and emerging AI capabilities.

    The company says it is pioneering “next-generation intellectual properties” through blockchain, generative AI and tokenisation, though it remains to be seen how these technologies will translate into commercial success in an increasingly crowded AI landscape.

  • Google India marketing chief calls it quits after 14 years

    Google India marketing chief calls it quits after 14 years

    MUMBAI: After nearly 14 years climbing Google’s ranks, Neha Barjatya has bid farewell to the tech behemoth. The marketing director announced her departure from Google India on LinkedIn, marking the end of a tenure that spanned the country’s digital transformation from the early mobile internet days to the current artificial intelligence boom.

    Barjatya’s stint at Google reads like a greatest hits album of Indian digital marketing. She masterminded campaigns that brought back Hindi cinema’s Mr India with Pixel phones, gamified search with Google Googlies, and launched the country’s Pixel manufacturing operations. Most recently, she shepherded the launch of Gemini, Google’s AI assistant.

    But perhaps her most significant legacy lies in Internet Saathi, one of the world’s largest digital literacy programmes. The initiative, a collaboration between Google and Tata Trusts, has reached over 290,000 villages and benefited more than 30 million rural women. Barjatya even took a secondment to establish Frend (Foundation for Rural Entrepreneurship Development), aimed at creating livelihood opportunities for digitally skilled women.

    Her career at Google began in November 2011 as head of business marketing and digitising India initiatives. She climbed to marketing director in March 2020, overseeing consumer apps including Search, Gemini, and Maps, alongside platforms and devices such as Pixel, Android, and the Play Store.

    Before joining Google, Barjatya cut her teeth at Viacom 18 Media for over five years, following earlier stints at Zee Turner and advertising agency Lintas.

    In her farewell post, she credited leaders including Sapna Chadha, Sandeep Menon, and former country head Rajan Anandan for their support. “This company has taught me to push past hurdles, stay grounded in purpose and never lose sight of what’s possible,” she wrote.

    Barjatya’s next move remains under wraps, though she hinted at “the next chapter” without revealing details.