MAM
AXN, Hong Kong Tourism tie up for joint awareness initiative in India
As awareness campaigns go this one’s certainly off the beaten trail. Action channel AXN and the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) have tied up for the Hong Kong AXN Challenge. The India leg of this ‘adventure race with a difference’ is to be held in Mumbai on 9 March.
For AXN, the event is a continuation of its efforts to expand ground presence, while the HKTB is using it as an opportunity to promote Hong Kong as being more than just a business hub – a destination for action and adventure as .
The race kicks off on 9 March from Marine Drive in south Mumbai with the finish line 30 km away in the western Mumbai suburb of Bandra.The race, which includes swimming (in the open sea), running and cycling, tests the two-person teams’ physical endurance, abilities and teamwork.
And packing some brain into the equation, the Hong Kong AXN Challenge tests the teams’ mental agility with a series of brain teasers about Hong Kong to be issued at various check points along the route.
The winning team will be sent to Hong Kong to compete with the best racers from Hong Kong, Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand for the ultimate prize – to become the Hong Kong AXN Challenge Champion.
The Hong Kong race, which promises to be even more rigorous, includes sea swimming, sea kayaking, trail running, climbing, abseiling, orienteering and commando crawling. The entire event will be captured on-air and broadcast on AXN later in the year.
Says, Rohit Bhandari, senior marketing manager, AXN: “It’s very exciting to work with the Hong Kong Tourism Board on this event due to the synergy in our marketing and brand values.”
“The Hong Kong AXN Challenge provides us with an excellent platform to showcase the multi-faceted dimensions of Hong Kong,” said David Leung, regional director for South and Southeast Asia, Hong Kong Tourism Board. “Through promotions like the Hong Kong AXN Challenge, we aim to showcase our lesser known treasures – the historical, cultural, natural and scenic beauty of Hong Kong which also lends itself to a multitude of adventure-filled lifestyle activities.”
Designed on the lines of Eco-Challenge, the adventure race telecast on AXN, the Hong Kong AXN Challenge will further entrench the channel’s brand values by offering viewers the opportunity to interact directly with the channel and personally experience the ‘buzz’ that AXN offers.
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.
