MAM
WPP bullish on Olympics, fiscal rev up 7.4% to ?10.02 bn
MUMBAI: WPP, the world‘s biggest advertising group, has posted a net profit of ?916.5 million for the fiscal ended 31 December, up 38.7 per cent over the earlier year, and expects the Olympics to give it a further boost this year.
WPP‘s strong performance in a slowdown year has been led by companies spending towards brand building in emerging markets. It has also managed to protect its market share in the matured markets.
Revenue grew by 7.4 per cent to ?10.02 billion, from ?99.33 billion in the previous fiscal.
Geographically, the Asia Pacific, Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe and Africa and Middle Eastern region posted maximum year-on-year growth in revenue at 12.5 per cent. The total revenue from the region was ?2.95 billion in 2011 as compared to ?2.62 billion in 2010.
Meanwhile, UK registered a growth of 8.8 per cent recording an revenue of ? 1.18 billion as opposed to ?1.10 billion in 2010.
The Western Europe region grew at 7.7 per cent with the revenue increasing from ?2.23 billion in 2010 to ?2.51 in 2011.
The region to show least growth was North America with 2.7 per cent increase in revenue. The region’s revenue for 2010 was ?3.3 billion while in 2011 it registered revenues of ?3.39 billion.
Sector wise, the group’s advertising and media investment management wing brought in revenue to the tune of ?4.12 billion in 2011, up 11.4 per cent compared to ?3.73 billion in the year ago period.
The consumer insight business grew marginally (at 1.1 per cent) to ?2.5 billion.
The PR and public affairs business recorded growth of 4.8 per cent earning the group ?886 million in 2011, compared to ?845 million in 2010.
The branding and identity, healthcare and specialist communications sector brought in a revenue of ? 2.5 billion, marking a growth of 8.5 per cent from last year’s ?2.3 billion.
In the fiscal under review, the WPP group made 24 acquisitions and investments in new markets, 32 in new media and eight in consumer insight. The remaining seven acquisitions were driven by individual client or agency needs.
WPP said the group’s budget for the year 2012 would be made on conservative basis and will reflect on the faster growing geographical markets like the APAC, Latin America, Africa and Central and East European markets. The focus will be on increasing the revenues and gross margins faster than the industry average.
The London Olympics, the Uefa Football Championships and November’s US Presidential Elections alone will grow advertising revenues by 1 per cent this year, helping WPP to meet its budgeted forecast of 4 per cent revenue growth, the group stated.
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.
