MAM
BBC secures sponsorship success in the tourism sector
MUMBAI: After the Australian tourism board promoting its business through Balaji Telefilms’ soaps likeKyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi and Kasutii Zindagi Kay, it is BBC World’s turn to focus on sponsorship in the travel and tourism sector.
According to an official release, the 24-hour news channel is planning to concentrate more on its travel and tourism segments, and already has a list of sponsors lined up. Amongst the list is Emirates, which will be promoting their global tour packages from January to March on BBC World. The channel will be airing a specially produced series of 50-second films, Keep Discovering with Emirates.
The tailored campaign is targeted to rope in the channel’s international audience. It will profile a range of unusual tourist attractions within 15 popular holiday destinations including London, Sydney, Dubai, Johannesburg, Singapore and Osaka. In addition to sponsoring these short features, the airlines will also sponsor the Voyager Season every weekend on BBC World.
UBS, a global financial firm based in Switzerland, will also organise a spot campaign on BBC World to be aired during the first quarter of the year. The channel will air a sailing theme commercial to promote UBS’ sponsored Team Alinghi, the Swiss syndicate challenging for the 2003 Americas Cup.
Meanwhile, the sponsors on the home front will be promoting the Kerala Tourism on the channel. The tourism board from ‘God’s own country’ are the 2003 official sponsors of BBC World’s Holiday Programme in India. The campaign is a high frequency spot currently telecast in Europe and Asia Pacific. It will soon be screened on United Airlines’ news stream from BBC World, says an official release.
The Indian tourist board’s Incredible India, the first globally launched advertising campaign is currently telecast on the channel in Europe, Asia and Australia throughout the first quarter of 2003.
The BBC World sponsor list also comprises KLM, which sponsors the hourly weather forecasts in Europe for the January and February.
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.
