MAM
Nimbus Sport to handle sponsorship for A1 Team India
MUMBAI: Sports marketing agency Nimbus Sport has been appointed by A1 Team India to manage their commercial and sponsorship rights.
A1 Grand Prix, which positions itself as the World Cup of Motorsport, will for the first time bring in the element of national pride into automobile racing. According to an official release, A1 Grand Prix has 25 teams from across the world that win the right to race in the World Cup. The first race is at Brands Hatch, England on 25 September 2005.
The India franchise has been secured by Indian born South African tycoon Atul Gupta in partnership with Bollywood star Anil Kapoor. The official launch of Team India will follow at the end of July. It is expected that the commercial revenues of A1 Grand Prix Team India will exceed $ 25 million in the first two seasons. Only a handful of Indian companies will win the rights to sponsor the A1 Grand Prix Team India car.
Nimbus Sport has decided in consultation with A1 Grand Prix that Indian companies/brands will be given exclusive sponsorship access. This will enable a true nationalistic feel to Team India.
Gupta says, “A1 Team India Motorsport is pleased to make a meaningful contribution towards the growth and development of the motor sports sector in India. We are very excited to be working with India’s leading sports marketing company to ensure that the A1 brand and that of A1 Team India is strongly positioned within Indian sports and in generating national pride. A1 Team India looks forward to competing at the highest level and affording Indian companies the opportunity to showcase their brands, at international level, through the ‘World Cup’ of Motorsport”.
Nimbus Sport chairman Harish Thawani said, “From the Indian market’s perspective we have done the biggest things in sport including the Cricket World Cup. But nothing has excited us at Nimbus Sport since the Cricket World Cup more than A1 Grand Prix. Racing is an easy sport to follow, and the nationalistic fervour will drive A1 GP far beyond the SEC A profile of F1 right into
the Indian middle class’ hearts.”
This announcement follows Nimbus Sport’s appointment by the Asian Bowling Tour and the Mumbai Cricket Association. A major football partnership is expected to be announced by Nimbus Sport in the coming weeks, the release says.
All the races will be broadcast on ESPN Star Sports (ESS). Races are expected to be held only on the weekends in order to maximise viewership potential. Nimbus Sport handles worldwide sponsorship sales and services, television and radio licensing in various countries including India for Global Cricket Corporation (GCC)’s ICC cricket business. Nimbus is also contracted by GCC to handle airtime sales on free TV in India of the Champions Trophy next year and the Cricket World Cup in 2007.
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.
