MAM
TBWA India bags Hughes ad account
NEW DELHI: TBWA India has bagged the creative and media business of Hughes Network Systems (HNS) and its two affiliated companies, Hughes Software Systems (HSS) and Hughes Escorts Communications Limited (HECL). The account has been won by TBWA’s Delhi office.
The account is valued at more than Rs 40 million. TBWA India vice president Benny Thomas said, “We won the account after a five-agency pitch, which included McCann Erickson and Mudra Communications. This is for the first time an agency has been allotted both creative and media accounts. Till now, creative was sourced through local shops, and media business was with McCann.”
The mandate includes working on HECL’s enterprise networking, retail services and `DiRECWAY’ global education and retail businesses. “HECL provides end-to-end networking solutions for corporate enterprises in India using state-of-the-art satellite technologies, for clients including Nestle, P&G, Marico, Playwin, Bombay Stock Exchange and leading banks,” said Thomas.
“Retail services is a new concept to be launched in the near future and we are currently working on the brand identity. We will be using TBWA proprietary tool “Connections” to add value to the brand. Our immediate task is to work on a campaign on DiRECWAY global education , which provides satellite based interactive management education programmes. The programmes happen in a ‘realtime, realworld’ environment from reputed universities via satellite. For instance, if a lecture is on in XLRI Jamshedpur, a real class room atmosphere is created as one can participate in live sessions from the institute,” added Thomas.
HECL has already forged partnerships with the Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode, XLRI Jamshedpur, Manipal Academy of Higher Education(MAHE), Apollo University Global Education Division of WIU (USA), and DiRECWAY Global Education. HECL has 28 `DiRECWAY’ learning centres in 18 cities including five in Delhi.
HNS is the world’s largest provider of broadband satellite network solutions, while HSS is the leading convergent network solutions provider.
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.
