MAM
TV high on youth agenda – MTV study
MUMBAI: Preferring to watch television while spending time at their favourite hangout – home – is high on the agenda of Indian youth, reveals a MTV study.
Findings of the study, released at the MTV Brand Equity Youth Marketing Forum on Thursday, indicate that while a good 37 per cent of youth prefer being at home than elsewhere as a place of ‘hanging out’, 38 per cent prefer to spend that time watching television. Good news indeed, for broadcasters, marketers et al.
Metropolises like Mumbai gave the biggest thumbs up to watching television as a means of spending time at home (55 per cent), while Baroda youth offered the lowest priority to the same activity. According to the study, an average Indian adult watches two hours of television every day.
The study, ‘Tuning into Indian youth’, was carried out by MTV in three phases. The first involved a quantitative study of a random sample of 2040 persons from the SEC ABC 15-34 demographic, culled from Delhi, Bangalore, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Lucknow and Vizag, done by IMRB.
The second phase was a qualitative assessment done by Explore Research based on study groups set up in Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai, while the third phase involved getting expert opinions on aspects like lifestyle, arts, music and fashion.
The results, that will ostensibly reflect in MTV’s programming and marketing strategy for the year ahead is an eye-opener.
It turns several notions about metropolitan youth on its head with a finding that 53 per cent youth in Mumbai consider going out with their families as one of their ‘coolest activities’, as against their counterparts in smaller cities who strike a more independent stance. A whopping 62 per cent of youth in Chennai list neatly combed hair as the ‘coolest thing to have’. Mumbai is the only city to list a medical profession as the ‘coolest career choice’, while business rates a higher priority in cities like Baroda and Chennai.
Being independent seems less of a priority in Mumbai than in Lucknow. 91 per cent of Lucknow youth expressed their preference for independence in life, while the corresponding figure for Mumbai was 42.
Premarital sex is more okay in Delhi than in other cities – 40 per cent in Delhi as against 29 per cent in Mumbai. Interestingly, music channels are a prominent source of information about music with 70 per cent of Delhiites listing these as their prime interface with music. As a natural fallout, veejays are seen as trendsetters by 69 per cent of youth in Mumbai. Delhi comes a close second in regarding channel veejays as trendsetting icons.
According to the study, conducted over the last six months, India is expected to have 462 million people in the consuming and rich classes by 2006-7 (the current figure is 281 million), with an additional 472 million as climbers. 70.5 per cent of the population will constitute the great Indian middle class.
With the demographic poised for a hefty growth in the next three years, it seems happy days ahead for all broadcasters, advertisers and marketers with a finger on the youth pulse.
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.
