MAM
Mindshare, Global Sportnet form new sponsorship co.
LONDON: WPP’s global communications agency MindShare and its sports marketing agency Global Sportnet have announced their intention to rapidly scale their presence within the sports marketing sector. To this end they have announced the formation of a new company.
It will focus on providing new and existing clients with strategic consulting, identification and purchase of sponsorship opportunities, activation and measurement expertise of sponsor marketing campaigns. The company has been formed as a 50:50 joint venture between WPP’s two entities.
David Stubley is the chief executive of the new entity. He has worked in television and sponsorship for over 18 years and has developed sponsorship campaigns in sport. These include the Volvo Ocean Race, Vodafone and Ferrari and Norwich Unions five year association with UK Athletics.
An official release informs that the business will combine the existing BroadMind/Global Sportnet consulting teams and open its doors with four offices in London, Hamburg, Stockholm and Milan. It plans to grow rapidly through a combination of organic growth and acquisition.
Stubley added, “I have always believed that the major communications groups are best placed to provide brands with strategic and independent advice on how to unlock value from an involvement in sport. WPP has recognised the opportunity and that the way to do this, is to create a focussed business within this arena.
“This new company will build on the firm foundations that exist with the joint venture partners and so benefit from access to the media and insight knowledge of MindShare, along with the sports marketing background and expertise of Global Sportnet. This is a unique and powerful combination and I’m delighted to have been chosen to lead this initiative.”
Global Sportnet CEO Thomas Martens said, “Global Sportnet has over the past years developed a successful sports consulting business alongside its core sports rights business. Having joined WPP 20 months ago, one of the objectives was to bundle and make use of the synergies across the group for sports marketing purposes and after having experienced very positive results already we are pleased to now collaborate with MindShare on this joint venture. It will provide our clients with even greater expertise and I feel sure will facilitate further synergies across WPP”.
MindShare is a global media investment management company with billings in excess of $18 billion. The network consists of 77 offices in 53 countries throughout the USA, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia Pacific.
Global Sportnet is a German-based (Hamburg) sports marketing agency. It specialises in the marketing of exclusive and worldwide broadcasting rights to European soccer matches and the sponsorship consultancy of blue-chip clients across various sports. The company owns the rights to more than 100 soccer clubs from 32 different European countries such as Juventus FC, FC Internazionale, S.S. Lazio, AC Parma, SL Benfica, PAOK FC and Slavia Praha, as well as various soccer associations. All of them have signed long-term contracts for the exclusive marketing of their broadcasting rights. Founded in 1995 by Thomas Martens, Global Sportnet claims to have quickly become a market leader in the European soccer business. Global Sportnet became a member of WPP in January 2002.
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.
