MAM
HT Media reorganises digital news, brings in new heads
NEW DELHI: HT Media is giving its digital newsrooms a fresh haircut and a sharper suit. The publisher is reorganising its online operations around individual brands, betting that clearer ownership will play better in a world shaped by AI, changing reading habits and fickle traffic.
The shift comes as the company hits a new scale in its digital journey and follows the exit of chief content officer Binoy Prabhakar. An executive close to the move said, “The company is gearing up for the next phase of growth. With Binoy moving on, it provided the right opportunity to evaluate our structure and ensure it is future-ready.”
Prabhakar marked 14 January 2026 as his last day at Hindustan Times Digital, writing on LinkedIn that it had been “an absolute honour” to lead the digital arm of a 100-year-old publisher. He joined HT in April 2023 and steered digital content for nearly three years.
The rethink reflects how news is now found and consumed. AI tools are rewriting discovery, platforms are less predictable and loyalty is harder won. In response, HT Media is appointing dedicated business heads for its key digital brands, giving each a clearer mandate and sharper focus.
Paras Sharma steps up as business head for Live Hindustan. An internal hire, Sharma has spent over eight years across HT’s digital businesses. Since 2018 he has led digital content and syndication at HT Digital Streams, and earlier helped build the digital business at Hindustan Media Ventures.
Mint gets Amrendra Shukla as its new business head. Shukla, who joined HT Media more than three years ago, previously ran digital subscriptions and partnerships, building a recurring revenue engine that lifted predictability of the digital topline by 40 percent. More recently, he has driven consumer revenue across Mint, Hindustan Times and other properties. Before HT, he worked at Emeritus, leading global growth for its consumer and edtech business.
Hindustan Times itself will be led digitally by Nisheeth Upadhyay, an external hire with familiar roots. Upadhyay joins from The Print, where he was editor for operations, and is an HT alumnus with nearly seven years at the paper in roles spanning production, content and homepage leadership.
In short, HT Media is swapping one big digital command centre for several brand-led cockpits. In a noisy, algorithm-driven sky, the company is betting that clearer controls will make for a smoother flight.
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.
