Metaverse is being leveraged in a variety of ways. It is now possible to hold a wedding in the metaverse. Several such events could be arranged in metaverse. Several brands have used metaverse to hold Holi parties, e.g. Tata Tea, McCain Foods. There were virtual concerts, virtual DJ, food trucks, dance floor, fireworks, virtual gulal and NFTs in this Holi party. Some have initiated food metaverse. Disney+Hotstar entered metaverse with the digital avatars of stars. United colors of Benetton entered metaverse so that visitors could buy clothes and participate in gaming experiences that allow them to accumulate QR codes which can then be used to make purchases from physical shops. There are dating applications on metavese.

IPL, the cricket league, has gone from strength to strength since its inception 15 years ago. The league earns revenues from advertising, sponsorship for teams, ticket sales, merchandising, in-stadia promotions, food and beverage sales and other related events. It has earned well from the broadcast rights which has doubled from Rs.2000 crore to an estimated Rs.4000 crore in 2022. In the next five year cycle, it is likely to earn from broadcast rights Rs.40,000 crore.

Its ecosystem has grown by 7-9 per cent year-on-year. It has added two more teams Gujrat Titans and Lucknow Super Giants. There would be more matches, and more in-stadia audience. In 2020, it was valued at Rs.45800 crore.

In comparison to other sports, cricket offers higher airtime for advertisers. Between overs, there could be 2-3 ads. It happens 20 times in each innings. Then there are strategic timeout, super-fours, super-sixes etc. which provide ad opportunities.

IPL is favourite of the audiences on account of its entertainment quotient.It offers family entertainment.

IPL’s reach stood at 300 million in 2021 on Disney+Hotstar and 400 million on TV.

IPL has scope to increase the number of teams. Right now, there is one team for each city. It could have multiple teams. India is yet to have teams from each state.

So far traditional TV was linear TV, but it is now being used for streaming, thus making it connected TV (CTV). Advertising-based video-on-demand (AVoD) platform is poised for growth. In India, OTT services are still testing waters. Just now it is paid AVoD, but soon there will be demand for free AVoD services.

CTV is being traded programmatically. Right now digital media is using programmatic. This will be extended to CTV ad inventory. CTV is the intersection of digital and linear. It allows the targeting of TV audiences with the same granularity as that of digital advertising. There is targeting of precise high value audiences, omnichannel planning and measurement.

The engagement of audience, with mobile screens is intimate. This elevated engagement can extend to TV screens.

Interactive CTV ads are not just for awareness building. They add new layers that support engagement and e-commerce. There could be interactive/actionable ads. There could be innovative and creative formats. This will facilitate conversions. There will be opportunities for sponsorship for the brands.

Cryptos are extremely volatile. It is difficult to track these assets on a continuous basis. These can cause extreme loss or profit, depending on when one enters the market.

In crypto investments, we can buy them directly or through ETFs and through interest-bearing funds. One more way to invest is through SIP-like products. These are also called ‘recurring buy plan’. It works on the line of SIP investments in mutual funds. However, cryptos are still unregulated. SIP-like investments help in dollar cost averaging. Dollar cost averaging refers to investing a fixed amount of money in a fund, stock or crypto at regular intervals irrespective of the fluctuations in the value of the assets. It results into buying more assets when the value is low, thus reducing the average cost per unit.

The transactions are done through a crypto exchange or investment platform that offers SIP. One can start SIP in any virtual assets, say Bitcoin or Ether or a basket of tokens. The process is similar to mutual funds SIP. However, there is no cut-off time in crypto investments, as it is 24×7 market. It is generally monthly SIP but there could be daily SIP. Crypto exchanges use UPI route for payments.

M & E sector in 2022 is expected to reach Rs.1.89 trillion. In 2020, it had reached Rs.1.38 trillion. In 2024, it is expected to reach Rs.2.32 trillion.

Advertising revenue reached in 2021 Rs.74,600crore. The highest growth was registered by TV advertising — Rs.31,300 crore. Digital advertising reached Rs.24,600 crore. Print advertising reached Rs.15,100 crore. The three sectors together accounted for 95 per cent of total ad spends in 2021. TV’s share was 42%, and digital and print’s share was 33% and 20% respectively. India’s advertising revenue is likely to grow to Rs.1 trillion by 2024.

Online gaming is another winning segment. Animation and VFX were the fastest growing segments. Events, films, OOH and radio too have shown recovery.

This the age of strong visual media. However, audio too is making a forceful comeback — we witness the growth of podcasts, audio books and radio.

There is audio streaming sector. There are platforms like Audible and Spotify. The future of audio streaming companies looks promising.

There are podcasts of diverse content — from education to mythology to sex education. Audio podcasts cater to specific audiences — those interested in self-improvement, motivation and mindfulness. What OTTs did to cinema, podcasts are going to do to the radio shows. These get the audience for even niche content. Podcasts can cover taboo topics. There are erotic podcasts too. Amazon has added podcasts to Amazon Music and has established Audible. It has acquired Wondery, a podcast company. Apple has purchased Scout FM. SiriuXM purchased Simplecast. Audio streaming companies sign deal with celebrities for podcasts.

Audio does not compete with video, and yet audio does compete with video. Audio production is economical. It saves time for the consumer. He/she can do a number of other things while listening to the audio. Audio is non-intrusive.

Audio books are storytellers Priyanka Chopra’s memoir Unfinished is available as audio book.

Advertising too has started leveraging the spoken word. It has good brand recall value. It drives communities. The ad revenue from audio streaming platforms is also set to rise.

The milk obtained from cows and buffalos is called bovine milk. The milk obtained from other animals such as goats, camels, sheep, donkeys and yak is called non-bovine milk. Either in liquid form or in extended product forms such as milk powder, ice cream, yoghurt, chocolates and cosmetics, the demand for non-bovine milk is on the rise.

Donkey milk is deemed closest to human milk in terms of its nutrition, compositions and digestibility. It can be used as a substitute for mother’s milk. In Europe, they have donkey farms. It is used to boost stamina drinks. It has low fat and cholesterol content. It is used in dermatitis, skin diseases, hepatitis, ulcers and cardio-vascular ailments.

Camel milk is routinely prescribed for children suffering from autism. It is good in diabetes, TB and infections.

Goat milk is good for dengue patients. It increases the platlete count. It was sold at Rs.300 a litre in Amritsar during the dengue outbreak in 2021.

Non-bovine milk is excellent functional food. It is a key ingredient in pharmaceuticals. It could be used to prepare super-foods to boost immunity.

Sheep milk is source for bio-active peptides or amino acids. It is used for cardiac ailments, epilepsy in children, cysts, gall stones and infections.

Yak milk available in hilly tracks is good for high B.P., diabetes, cardio- vascular troubles and cancer.

Non-bovine ecosystem makes the farmer rear these animals for transportation, meat, wool and hide. There are shrinking grazing grounds. All this affects the population of these animals adversely. There should be proper policy initiatives to correct the eco-system. The therapeutic value of non-bovine products must be encouraged.

Both Tata Play and Airtel which are direct-to-home distributors have introduced Tata Play Binge+ and Xstream Premium set-top boxes to bring home several OTT channels on home TV.

The cost of acquiring a new customer for OTT channels individually is high. It is, therefore, necessary to aggregate the channels. India has 40 video streaming apps. OTTs occupy 7-9 per cent of India’s entertainment space. It has a healthy growth rate. The aggregation in distribution will improve the subscription revenue. Indians are averse to paying for multiple OTTs. It is inconvenient too to pay for OTTs individually. There is hassle of remembering the log-in ids and passwords. It takes time to move from one app to another to decide what to watch . The way out is aggregation.

This widens the reach of OTT channels. It brings down the cost for customers. The monthly subscription fee for Tata Play Binge + and Airtel’s Xstream Premium starts at Rs. 149 each. OTT channels also could collect customer data and mine this data. OTTs will receive mass adoption on account of affordability. Even tier-I and tier-II cities will switch from linear TV to OTT content consumption.

Fuel cell technology is a nascent technology in automobile sector. As we know, in electrolysis, the electrolyte is split, say water into hydrogen and oxygen. In fuel cell vehicles, the two are combined to produce water and electricity. Electricity is used as fuel to drive the car. The car gets oxygen from the air, and hydrogen from a tank which is to be filled up.

The car can be filled up with hydrogen in 2-3 minutes. It runs longer on full tank of hydrogen, just like petrol filling stations, FCEVs require hydrogen filling stations. Hydrogen is to be produced in sufficient quantity, and in a cost effective manner. India has embarked on hydrogen production under its Hydrogen Policy.

Toyota has developed Mirai, a fuel cell vehicle, for evaluation. It has a real-wheel drive platform. It can store 5.6 kg of hydrogen. It has lithium-ion high voltage battery. It drives like high voltage battery. It drives like an electric car and is exceptionally quiet. It has linear acceleration, since it does not have gears.

Digital publishers are mainly supported by advertising revenues. Internet and advertising started their journey together. Even after three decades of the existence of internet, advertising continues to support internet. Publishers rely on page views (essentially their ad inventory) and the more the page views, the more the advertising revenues. There are constraints on ad viewability. Push notification advertising overcomes this constraint.

There is wide scale adoption of push notification ads amongst the publishers. These help the publishers in engagement of the audience and also in monetisation. Push notifications are short which pop up on the users’ devices, say cell phones or desktops, persuading them to act. These are delivered to those who opt for them. Thus the ads are targeted to the interested audience.

The situation improves the likelihood of the ads being clicked. These are also not barred by ad blockers. They are effective and create a stream of revenue for the publishers. Publishers get a click-though rate of 8-12 per cent.

Push notifications ads do not compete with ads that appear on the website, since push notifications are directly delivered. These reach the location that other ad formats cannot — users’ devices. They yield higher CTR ( click-through rate), much higher than the banner ads.

Most visitors to the publishers’ website are casual. Many do not return to the website. Such visitors can be converted into an audience and can be monetised. On push notifications, native advertising content can be served, It escalates the advertising revenue.

Publishers flourish on advertising. Their aim is to build traffic. They should make good use of push notifications.