MAM
Bollywood frenzy catapults Star Plus to top in digital homes too
MUMBAI: Star Plus ended rival Colors’ six-week run as the top Hindi general entertainment television channel in digital homes in the first week of 2013, riding high on the Bollywood obsession among Indians.
The telecast of Big Star Entertainment Awards, an annual event that honours the chosen best in Bollywood, for three-and-a-half hours on the New Year‘s eve helped Star Plus displace Colors from the No. 1 position in digital homes. Star Plus enjoys a leading position in the overall market (including both digital and analogue television homes).
In the first week of the new year ended 5 January, Star Plus notched 275 GRPs (up from 225 in the 52nd week of 2012) with 44 of those contributed by just the Bollywood awards show, according to TAM Media Research data sourced from a television channel. In the overall market, the Bollywood awards show garnered 41 GRPs. It helped Star Plus widen its lead to 34 GRPs from 7 GRPs in the 52nd week of 2012 against its immediate rival Colors, which remained in the second position.
Star Plus GM Nachiket Pantvaidya said, “It is indeed heartening to see a brilliant response from our viewers (to the Big Star Entertainment Awards show).”
In fact, Star Plus regained the top position in digital market (HSM, 4+) after a gap of seven weeks since the first week of November 2011. Apart from the previous six weeks where Colors was at the top, Zee had occupied the top position in week 46. In week 44 and 45, Star Plus was at the number one position in digital market, as it was in the overall market.
The government had mandated complete switchover to digital delivery of television channels in the top four metros from 1 November but the adoption of digitisation has happened almost fully in Mumbai and Delhi and to a great extent in Kolkata. Chennai is lagging far behind and is caught in a legal hurdle in the Madras High Court.
Colors could add just three GRPs (gross rating points) to gross 245 GRPs in the first week of 2013 (previous week 242 GRPs). The Viavom18 channel had aired Colors’ Golden Petal Awards, the channel’s in-house awards function, which notched 4.56 TVR in the digital market, same as in C&S market. The Golden Petals Awards contributed 32 GRPs to its total GRPs in the first week.
Colors CEO Raj Nayak had, on being consistently at the top in the digital market for several weeks, said, “….With the digitisation completed in Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata (to a lesser extent though), these three markets put together contribute to a large proportion of the digital universe weightage. Hence, a strong base (of Colors) in the markets of Mumbai and Delhi helps.”
Sony Entertainment Television (Set) lost 22 GRPs in the digital market to end the first week with 188 GRPs while Zee TV followed with 183 GRPs (previous week 177).
Following Zee TV is Sab with 143 GRPs (previous week 149) and Life OK with 95 GRPs (previous week 105).
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.
