MAM
Dhoni named brand ambassador to promote BPL
NEW DELHI: Indian skipper M S Dhoni has been appointed brand ambassador to promote Barclays Premier League football (BPL) in India by Star Sports.
A keen football enthusiast and a Manchester United fan, Dhoni will invite all sports fans to ‘Join the Game‘ in a clutter breaking integrated marketing campaign which will be launched early next week. The campaign will have a strong on-air and digital media thrust.
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This announcement comes on the back of the sports broadcaster announcing the launch of Hindi commentary for the first time on BPL. The Hindi commentary will be in addition to the English commentary and will be available for over 100 live matches across the season.
Speaking on the occasion, ESPN Software India COO Vijay Rajput said, “We are delighted to have MS Dhoni come on board as the brand ambassador for BPL in the country. We are targeting to expand the fan base of BPL in India by leveraging the iconic power and fan following of MS Dhoni to attract cricket fans to sample BPL – Duniya ka sabse bada league. We want these fans to sample matches of BPL through the eyes of their biggest hero. The core campaign idea is ‘Join the Game‘. The launch of BPL in Hindi is in line with our overall strategy of pushing multi-lingual content. We believe that if you want people to consume a lot of content, you should offer it to them in their language of comfort.”
The BPL campaign will build on Dhoni‘s love for football. He will invite sports fans in India to ‘Join the Game‘. The campaign has interesting renditions of how Dhoni is always missing from action and is glued to the TV sets watching BPL every weekend while his family and friends run around looking for him.
Speaking on the association, Dhoni said, “I am an avid BPL fan and I just played out a real situation in front of the camera. If I am not busy with cricket, I am always busy with BPL during week-ends. Football is extremely exciting and very close to my heart. I was a goal keeper during my school days. Even today, I play football as a warm up game ahead of key cricket matches.”
“I feel that Indian sports fans should consume different types of sports. I want them to be passionate about Cricket as they are, but at the same time one needs to give healthy respect for other disciplines as well. It is critical to spread the message of overall sports development and promotion in the country. This Star Sports initiative to provide football commentary now in Hindi will go a long way in making football exciting to watch and comprehend for new audiences across the nation. Similar efforts should be done to promote other sports as well,” India‘s captain added.
Star Sports has aggressive production plans for non-live programming on this season of BPL in Hindi. The support of non-live programming through the season will play a key role in educating consumers about the league. The broadcaster plans to showcase highlight shows, weekly show based on ‘goals‘; and a weekly magazine show which will review and preview the latest developments from BPL. The sports channel has started off non-live programming with a six episode build-up show ‘Superstar Football‘ which focuses on multiple facets of the league – famous owners, top clubs, top players etc.
In football, Star Sports channels hold broadcast rights for Barclays Premier League, Spanish La Liga, Italian Serie A, the English FA Cup and England international matches and AFC Events. Star Sports has recently showcased FIFA Confederations Cup 2013.
Digital
Content India 2026 opens with a copro pitch, a spice evangelist and a £10,000 prize for Indian storytelling
Dish TV and C21Media’s three-day summit puts seven ambitious projects before an international jury, and two walk away with serious development money
MUMBAI: India’s content industry gathered in Mumbai this March for Content India 2026, a three-day summit organised by Dish TV in partnership with C21Media, and it wasted no time making a statement. The event opened with a Copro Pitch that put seven scripted and unscripted television concepts before an international panel of judges, and by the end of it, two projects had walked away with £10,000 each in marketing prize money from C21Media to support development and international promotion.
The jury, comprising Frank Spotnitz, Fiona Campbell, Rashmi Bajpai, Bal Samra and Rachel Glaister, evaluated a shortlist that ranged from a dark Mumbai comedy-drama about mental health (Dirty Minds, created by Sundar Aaron) to a Delhi coming-of-age mystery (Djinn Patrol, by Neha Sharma and Kilian Irwin), a techno-thriller about a teenage gaming prodigy (Kanpur X Satori, by Suchita Bhatia), an investigative crime drama blending mythology and modern thriller (The Age of Kali, by Shivani Bhatija), a documentary on India’s spice heritage (The Masala Quest, hosted by Sarina Kamini), a documentary on competitive gaming (Respawn: India’s Esports Revolution, by George Mangala Thomas and Sangram Mawari), and a reality-horror competition merging gaming and immersive fear (Scary Goose, by Samar Iqbal).
The session was hosted by Mayank Shekhar.
The two winners were Djinn Patrol, backed by Miura Kite, formerly of Participant Media and known for Chinatown and Keep Sweet: Pray & Obey, with Jaya Entertainment, producers of Real Kashmir Football Club, also attached; and The Masala Quest, created and hosted by Sarina Kamini, an Indian-Australian cook, author and self-described “spice evangelist.”
The summit also unveiled the Content India Trends Report, whose findings made for bracing reading. Daoud Jackson, senior analyst at OMDIA, set the tone: “By 2030, online video in India will nearly double the revenue of traditional TV, becoming the main driver of growth.” He noted that in 2025, India produced a quarter of all YouTube videos globally, overtaking the United States, while Indians collectively spend 117 years daily on YouTube and 72 years on Instagram. Traditional subscription TV is declining as free TV and connected TV gain ground, forcing broadcasters to innovate. “AI-generated content is just 2 per cent of engagement,” Jackson added, “highlighting the dominance of high-quality human content. The key for Indian media companies is scaling while monetising effectively from day one.”
Hannah Walsh, principal analyst at Ampere Analysis, added hard numbers to the picture. India produced over 24,000 titles in January 2026 alone, with 19,000 available internationally. The country now accounts for 12 per cent of Asia-Pacific content spend, up from 8 per cent in 2021, outpacing both Japan and China. Key exporters include JioStar, Zee Entertainment, Sony India, Amazon and Netflix, delivering over 7,500 Indian-produced titles abroad each year. The top importing markets are Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, the United States and the Philippines. Scripted content dominates globally at 88 per cent, with crime dramas and children’s and family titles performing particularly strongly.
Manoj Dobhal, chief executive and executive director of Dish TV India, framed the summit’s ambition squarely. “Stories don’t need translation. They need a platform, discovery, and reach, local or global,” he said. “India produces more movies than any country, our streaming platforms compete globally, and our tech and creators win international awards. Yet fragmentation slows growth. Producers, platforms, and tech move in different lanes. We need shared spaces, collaboration, and an ecosystem where ideas, technology, and people meet. That is why we built Content India.”
The data, the pitches and the prize money all pointed to the same conclusion: India is not waiting for the world to discover its stories. It is building the infrastructure to sell them.
