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Context is everything.
Detailed stories on technology startups, business and economic current affairs.
Detailed stories on technology startups, business and economic current affairs.
Even as the much-awaited cricket tournament kicks off, Reliance and Disney are going all out to draw viewers and advertisers. Who will prevail?
Editor's note: The 16th edition of the Indian Premier League starts today and in the recent history of the cricket tournament, this is going to be one of the more significant ones. For the first time ever, television and streaming are going to take on each other head-on for the IPL viewership (and, in the process, advertising dollars). The television rights for the tournament are with Disney-owned Star India and the streaming rights are with Reliance Industries’ Viacom18, which will be airing the IPL on its streaming platform JioCinema. Up until this year, the streaming rights for the IPL were always with Star India (read: Hotstar). The past few days have been all about the preparation for this fight. Viacom18 kick-started things earlier this month with an advertisement that says digital India will watch digital IPL; the ad stars cricketer M.S. Dhoni. On the other hand, Star India's ad campaign celebrates watching sports as a community; it features cricketer Virat Kohli. But the fight goes beyond the ad war. (Read all about how Disney ended up with the television rights and lost …
While the filing for an IPO by its telecom and digital business was the highlight, Reliance laid out plans for its new energy and retail businesses, setting them up for eventual listings.
The retired banker wants India’s top companies to invest in AI. But the capital, ambition, and urgency simply aren’t there.
Telecom and retail both continue with their ‘hit and miss’, while O2C delivers an unsurprisingly poor performance in Q4. This is a year RIL will be glad to see the back of.
