MAM
Frido gets a grip on hockey comfort with Soorma Club partnership
MUMBAI: High-speed tackles, tight turnarounds and barely any recovery time elite hockey is as much about endurance as it is about skill. As the Hockey India League gears up for its 2025–26 season, comfort and recovery have found a new place on the team sheet.
Frido, India’s direct-to-consumer ergonomics and comfort solutions brand, has been named the official comfort partner for the JSW Sports-owned Soorma Hockey Club, covering both its men’s and women’s teams. The women’s league begins on 28 December 2025, followed by the men’s competition from 3 January 2026.
The partnership reflects a growing recognition that sustained performance across compressed league schedules depends not just on training intensity, but on recovery, injury prevention and everyday physical readiness. Hockey’s demands repeated sprints, abrupt changes in direction and constant physical contact leave little margin for error when it comes to player wellbeing.
As part of the association, Frido will equip Soorma Hockey Club’s squads with its range of comfort and orthotic solutions, designed to support athletes through match play, training sessions and recovery routines. Importantly, the same level of performance and recovery support will be extended across both the men’s and women’s teams, underlining the brand’s focus on equal access to science-led athlete care.
“At Frido, we believe elite performance deserves the right comfort and recovery support,” said Frido co-founder and CEO Ganesh Sonawane. “Partnering with Soorma Hockey Club allows us to extend this support equally to both men’s and women’s teams, reinforcing our commitment to empowering women in sport through meaningful, performance-led solutions.”
From the team’s perspective, the fit is a practical one. “Our players operate in an environment where physical readiness and recovery are non-negotiable,” said JSW Sports chief commercial officer Karan Yadav. “Frido’s understanding of ergonomics and athlete support aligns well with our approach to high-performance sport.”
The collaboration adds to Frido’s growing footprint in the sports ecosystem, as the brand looks to translate its athlete-focused learnings into everyday comfort solutions. For Soorma Hockey Club, it signals a season where marginal gains often decided off the pitch could make the difference when the whistle blows.
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.
