MAM
Fox restructures marketing team
MUMBAI: US broadcaster Fox has announced a restructuring of the network‘s marketing and communications functions to increase collaboration and creativity between departments and streamline the group‘s day-to-day decision-making processes.
Beginning immediately, the following executive vice presidents and newly-formed teams will report to Fox president of marketing and communications Joe Earley Earley.
Laurel Bernard has been promoted to executive VP marketing. In addition to her current oversight of the network‘s national media, on-air planning and national promotions teams, Bernard will also lead Fox‘s affiliate marketing and multi-platform distribution marketing efforts.
As part of this new team structure, Michelle Garry has been elevated to senior VP, multi-platform distribution marketing and will join senior VP of affiliate marketing Nick Belperio, VP of national media Emily King and VP of on-air planning Shawn Mills as Bernard‘s senior lieutenants.
Brian Dollenmayer has been promoted to executive VP of on-air promotions and marketing operations. He will be responsible for the creative vision and operations behind all the on-air and radio promotional campaigns that support Fox‘s new and returning series. Senior VP of on-air promotion operations Steven Weinheimer will report to Dollenmayer.
Shannon Ryan has been promoted to executive VP of marketing and communications. In this role, she will drive the network‘s earned media strategy and grassroots marketing efforts, and will oversee Fox‘s publicity and corporate communications and creative services teams.
Reporting to Ryan, George Oswald has been elevated to executive VP, creative services group and executive producer, special projects and Jason Clark has been promoted to senior VP of Publicity and Corporate Communications. In addition, Tomiko Iwata, who reports to Oswald, has been promoted to senior VP, Creative Services Group.
Earley said, “At Fox we have an incredible team of talented executives who design and implement some of television‘s most effective campaigns. Shannon, Laurel and Brian have been invaluable leaders on both the creative and strategic fronts. In addition to recognizing their accomplishments, these promotions, along with those of George, Jason, Michelle and Tomiko, create a new structure which increases collaboration and innovation.”
Senior VP of talent relations Missy Halperin; senior VP of design Tom Morrissey and senior VP of Special Ops Dean Norris will continue to report to Earley and manage their respective teams.
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.
