MAM
ESPN to sell ad spots on DD for Indo-Pak series with Rs 220 mn minimum guarantee bid
NEW DELHI: ESPN Star Sports will sell advertisement spots on Doordarshan for the upcoming India-Pakistan cricket series, having bid an amount of Rs 220 million as minimum guaranteed revenue.
DD Director General Tripurari Sharan told indiantelevision.com that the public broadcaster had bid an amount of Rs 180 million.
ESPN, which holds the telecast rights for the one-day international and twenty20 series, also agreed to provide Doordarshan match feed without any embedded advertisement for terrestrial transmission.
Under the Sports Broadcasting Signals (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharati) Act, 2007, ESPN will share 25 per cent of the revenues with Doordarshan.
The deal covers both the Pakistan series and the one-day international and twenty20 series with England next month. The series with Pakistan starts next week.
Sharan, in reply to a question, said no decision has been taken yet by the government on a plea by Prasar Bharati that its share should be more than 25 per cent.
The bidding process was conducted after the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry officials intervened to settle Doordarshan‘s differences with ESPN and the BCCI over providing feed without embedded advertisements.
Sharan said “ESPN had said there will be ‘digital commercial enhancement‘ of the feed coming from the BCCI.” This meant logos and other promotional material of the sponsors were to be part of the feed. Consequently, DD asked the Ministry to intervene, and the latter wrote to ESPN and BCCI saying that there would be no advertisements.
According to the Act, it is mandatory for the rights holder of any sporting event of national importance to share the feed with the public broadcaster. Doordarshan, in turn, is required to share 75 per cent of the advertisement revenue with the rights holder.
The party responsible for selling advertisements, called revenue management company, is decided through a bidding process. Doordarshan lost money on the India-Sri Lanka T20 series earlier this year when it bid Rs 200 million against ESPN‘s bid of Rs 20 million. Although it managed to earn the bid amount, it had to pay 75 per cent to ESPN and so lost revenue from the normal telecasts.
MAM
ASCI study uncovers how Gen Alpha navigates ads in endless digital feeds
‘What the Sigma?’ ethnographic report maps blurred boundaries between content and commerce for 7–15-year-olds.
MUMBAI: Gen Alpha isn’t scrolling through the internet, they’re living rent-free inside its never-ending dopamine drip, and the ads have already moved in next door. The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) Academy, partnering with Futurebrands Consulting, has published ‘What the Sigma?’, an immersive ethnographic study that maps how Indian children aged 7–15 (Generation Alpha) consume, interpret and live alongside media and commercial messaging in a hyper-digital environment.
The research draws on in-home interviews, sibling and peer conversations, and discussions with parents, teachers, counsellors, psychologists, marketers and kidfluencers across six cities. It examines not only what children watch but how algorithms, content creators, peers and parents shape their relationship with the constant stream of shorts, vlogs, gameplay, memes, sponsored posts and ‘kid-ified’ adult material.
Five core themes emerged:
- Discontinuous Generation, Gen Alpha is not growing up alongside the internet, they are growing up inside it. Cultural references, humour, aesthetics and language sync globally in real time, often leaving adults functionally illiterate in their children’s world. A reference that lands instantly for a 10-year-old in Mumbai or Visakhapatnam feels opaque or disjointed to most parents.
- Authority Vacuum, Parents and teachers frequently lose cultural fluency in digital spaces. The algorithm responsive, inexhaustible and perfectly attuned to preferences becomes the most attentive presence in many children’s daily lives. Rules around screen time feel increasingly difficult to enforce when adults cannot fully see or understand the content landscape.
- Digital as Society, Online and offline no longer exist as separate realms, they form one continuous reality. The phone is not a tool children pick up; it is the primary social environment they inhabit.
- Great Media Mukbang, Content flows as an ambient, boundary-less, multi-sensorial stream. Entertainment, advertising, commerce, gameplay, memes and vlogs merge into one undifferentiated feed. The line between active choice and passive absorption has largely collapsed.
- Blurred Ad Recognition, Children aged 7–12 typically recognise only the most overt advertising formats. Influencer promotions, gaming integrations and vlog sponsorships often register as organic entertainment. Children aged 13–15 show greater ad literacy but remain highly susceptible to narrative-integrated, passion-driven and emotionally resonant brand messaging. Discernment remains low across the board in a non-stop stream.
ASCI CEO and secretary general Manisha Kapoor said, “ASCI Academy’s study is an investigation into the content life of Generation Alpha not to judge them but to understand them. Their cultural reference points seem disjointed from those of earlier generations. Insights on how they perceive advertising is the first step towards building more responsible engagement frameworks, given that they are the youngest media consumers in our country right now.”
Futurebrands Consulting founder and director Santosh Desai added, “While earlier generations have been exposed to digital media, for this generation it is the world they inhabit. This report explores not only what they watch but how they are being shaped by algorithms, content and advertising.”
The study proposes four adaptive, principles-led pathways:
- Universal signposting of commercial intent using design principles that make advertising recognisable even to young audiences.
- Ecosystem-wide responsibility shared among advertisers, platforms, creators, schools and parents.
- Future-ready safeguards built directly into children’s content experiences rather than as optional background settings.
- Formal media and advertising literacy embedded in school curricula to teach age-appropriate understanding of persuasion and commercial intent.
In a feed that never pauses, Gen Alpha isn’t merely watching content, they’re swimming in an ocean where entertainment, commerce and identity swirl together. The real question isn’t whether they can spot an ad; it’s whether the adults building the ocean can agree on where the lifeguards should stand.
