MAM
China’s Tom Online, Beijing Music Radio enter strategic alliance
MUMBAI: With the coming of the digital entertainment tide, Tom Online Inc., a leading mobile Internet company in China today launched TOMusic Plus, in partnership with Beijing Music Radio which is the flagship music media in China.
The partnership between the two is set to manifest itself through traditional themed products like music releases and entertainment news but formatted in cutting-edge technology, leveraging on Tom Online’s wireless value-added service platform to create a new mobile digital entertainment brand.
Riding on Tom Online’s leading wireless value-added service (VAS) platform, TOMusic Plus is a brand new way to enjoy songs and music for the young and trendy group of music lovers, without compromising intellectual property. With this, not only will users be able to enjoy music more freely, but through this new way of ‘transmitting’ music, a new business model across the industries including Internet, mobile telecommunications, and music media will emerge with TOMusic Plus at the forefront of this value chain innovation, said an official release. Tom Online expects the new service will increase its user base resulting in higher profits for the company.
Through this partnership, TOMusic Plus will allow users to vote for their favorite songs or singers directly from their mobile phone on the China Music Billboard hosted by Beijing Music Radio. Tom Online and Beijing Music Radio believe that through this cooperation, the China Music Billboard will further strengthen its leading position in China’s music industry, broaden music lover’s participation on the billboard, and allow users to interactively participate in the polling process, resulting in the dawn of a new mobile digital entertainment era, the release added.
Commenting on this launch, Tom Online executive director and chief executive officer Wang Leilei stated, “Love for music comes naturally to young people. More and more youngsters are after a more interactive and fresh entertainment experience. TOMusic Plus perfectly satisfies this requirement.”
Reflecting on the potential of this evolving industry, Wang stated, “TOMusic Plus is not only a new form of entertainment evolved under the mobile Internet age, but also an illustration of the bright future for China’s digital entertainment industry, based on the wireless VAS platform. Tom Online is determined to be the leader and pioneer in this industry!”
Beijing Music Radio general manager Shao Jun said, “It has become a trend to integrate the entertainment and Internet industries as their target audiences are becoming the same. Beijing Music Radio has been cooperating with Tom Online in terms of online content services since 2001. Now that we are in closer partnership we are empowered to build a new era in China.”
A series of roadshows will be organised throughout China from 13 May to the end of June aiming to introduce TOMusic Plus services to millions of users across the country, setting the mobile digital entertainment trend in China.
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.
