Event Coverage
Share of news channels in total AdEx is encouraging: CVL Srinivas
NOIDA: “Indian news industry is as vibrant as the different cultures of India,” said GroupM south Asia CVL Srinivas as he presented the keynote on Innovations in news selling at the 7th Indian News Television Summit.
Srinivas, sharing a media agency’s perspective on news and brands, added that the news industry today needs a lot of balance especially in terms of reportage, content for different audiences across platforms.
As for the AdEx, he informed that in the country the advertising expenditure for television stood at Rs 16,000 crore. “The news channels take 13 per cent share of the pie which is encouraging as the viewership of news channels stood at 10 per cent,” he stressed upon.
Talking about the ad spend growth in the country, he informed that the television medium was growing at a rate of 14 per cent overall. The Hindi news genre was growing at 15 per cent, closely followed by regional news at 10 per cent while English news genre stood at seven per cent.
Moving then onto brand research, Srinivas felt that today brand research is undergoing a radical change and old measurement methods are being questioned. Throwing some light on GroupM’s one such initiative, Social Command Centre, he said, “It is a virtual conference room that monitors the digital space and provides rich insights about consumers and brands.” And stated the example of Nestle which uses the tool to monitor chatter and gather buzz around the brand digitally.
Honda using the popular comedian Kapil Sharma to launch a series of campaign online, which garnered 1.5 million hits, was another example, he highlighted upon. He went on to say that cause-based marketing should be initiated and brands should ask themselves, how do we evolve ourselves to become more meaningful entities? “Once brands are able to answer the same, there will be a lot of headroom for improvement and growth,” he opined. Providing another example, he said an agency called Crayon Data was able to come up with tastegraphs that showed the purchasing and behavioural pattern of different audiences in well-segmented clusters.
He further went on to add that the evolving Indian digital space sees 220 million Indians active on the digital front spending almost 200 minutes a day online either checking mails or watching videos. “This implies that the new medium cannot be ignored,” he informed.
According to Srinivas, news broadcasters need to keep in mind a few things for the future such as co creating socially responsible agendas with brands, invest more in digital, adopt new metrics such as consumer sentiment, social buzz, social impact, viewers’ profile and lastly getting into big data.
In his closing remarks, he said that while the upcoming digital environment has caused a big disruption to some it will provide a huge opportunity to the news industry and sky is the limit.
Event Coverage
Anime India announces Amazon MX Player as co-presenting partner for Anime India Kolkata 2026
MUMBAI: Riding high on the success of its blockbuster Mumbai debut, Anime India is accelerating its nationwide expansion with the announcement of Amazon MX Player as the co-presenting partner for Anime India Kolkata. The partnership marks a significant step forward in the festival’s mission to deliver large-scale, accessible, and fan-first anime experiences across the country.
Scheduled for 14 and 15 February 2026 at the iconic Biswa Bangla Mela Prangan, Anime India Kolkata will launch the first regional chapter of what is set to be a year-long, multi-city tour. As the curtain-raiser for the 2026 circuit, the Kolkata edition aims to fuse the energy of global Japanese pop culture with India’s fast-growing community of anime, manga, and pop-culture fans.
A household name in digital entertainment, Amazon MX Player brings unmatched reach and cultural relevance to the Anime India platform. With its expanding focus on anime and youth-driven content, Amazon MX Player’s involvement as co-presenting partner reinforces Anime India’s vision of making anime culture more inclusive breaking barriers of language, geography, and accessibility to connect with fans nationwide.
Anime India Kolkata 2026 will showcase cosplay competitions, interactive zones led by the Indian Gunpla Community, India-39 Vocaloid Community, The Japan Curry, and Adda-o-Otaku by The Otaku Guild. Fans can join tournaments across fighting games, Pokémon VGC, and more. Acclaimed Japanese director Susumu Mitsunaka (Haikyu!!) will attend as guest of honour, appearing in panels and live sessions. Positioned as an immersive celebration of fan culture and industry collaboration, the Kolkata edition marks the beginning of Anime India’s nationwide expansion.
Sharing their perspective on the partnership, Amazon MX Player director Aruna Daryanani expressed, “Anime in India has evolved from a niche interest into a mainstream cultural movement, driven by an increasingly engaged and passionate fanbase. At Amazon MX Player, our focus is on expanding access by bringing anime to audiences across the country for free and in multiple local languages. Our association with Anime India reflects our commitment to supporting the growth of anime in India and deepening connections with fans, while continuing to build Amazon MX Player as a trusted destination for free, high-quality entertainment.”
“Anime India Kolkata is a celebration of how anime has grown beyond entertainment into a powerful cultural and creative force. By bringing fans, creators, and industry leaders onto one shared platform, the festival is helping define the future of pop culture in India,” said Anime India co-founder and director Neha Mehta.
The debut edition of Anime India 2025 in Mumbai attracted over 29,000 fans, quickly cementing its status as a landmark celebration of anime and Japanese pop culture. Riding on this overwhelming response, the Kolkata chapter is projected to draw more than 40,000 visitors across two days, positioning it as one of the biggest anime conventions ever held in eastern India.
Anime India is focused on bringing together fans from across the country to create a truly pan-India celebration of anime, manga, cosplay, gaming, and Japanese culture. With plans to expand into four key metropolitan hubs in 2026—east (Kolkata), north (Delhi), west (Mumbai), and south (Hyderabad)—the festival seeks to deliver globally benchmarked experiences while supporting and uplifting creators, artists, and fan communities throughout India.
