MAM
Adidas to be official partner of Beijing 2008 Olympic games
MUMBAI: The Beijing Olympic organisers and Adidas-Salomon AG today announced that adidas will be the official sportswear partner of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.
The sports major had recently also extended its long term partnership with FIFA for the FIFA World Cup in 2010 and 2014.
Under the agreement with the Beijing Olympics, Adidas will supply sportswear for all staff, volunteers and technical officials of the 2008 Olympic Games and the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games. Adidas will also outfit the Chinese Olympic teams for the Turin 2006 Olympic Winter Games and the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.
“Adidas is proud and honored to play a major part when the world’s biggest and most exciting sports celebration event will be held for the first time in the world’s biggest country, China. In addition, we are excited to support the Chinese Olympic team in its mission to deliver outstanding Olympic performance on home soil,” said adidas-Salomon CEO Herbert Hainer.
“Adidas has been a part of the Olympic Movement ever since our founder Adi Dassler produced his first pair of sprint spikes for an Olympic athlete back in 1928. The Beijing 2008 Olympic Games will once again be worldwide visible proof of our dedication to athletes, products, innovation and leadership. At the same time, the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games provide us with a unique platform to build the Adidas brand image and business in China and the whole of Asia,” he added.
“As one of the major important sponsors, Adidas has always paid enthusiastic attention and rendered active support to the development of China’s sports,” Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) executive vice president Wang Wei said at the signing ceremony.
“In the context of the rapid growth and continuous expansion of the Chinese sports market, we believe Adidas, by sponsoring the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, will make greater contributions to the Olympic Movement and to China’ s sports as well as create larger room for its own development and a better prospect. We are looking forward to the friendly and reciprocal co-operation with Adidas,” Wang added.
The composite logo of Adidas and the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games was also unveiled.
Chinese gold medalists from the Athens Olympic Games, including Feng Kun and Xian Dongmei, also attended the signing ceremony and expressed their confidence in winning gold again in 2008. “All of us in China put our hearts in the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. We’ll be successful!” said Xian Dongmei, Gold Medalist of Women’s 52 kg Class Judo at the Athens Olympic Games.
Adidas was already an Official Supporter of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games, and supplied more than 1.4 million products to federations, volunteers, officials and others. By outfitting 22 National Olympic Committees, Adidas secured its position as the true Olympic brand in Athens and was the brand of choice of nearly 50 per cent of the athletes at the 2004 Olympic Games.
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.
