MAM
Dayanand Bhoite joins JioStar as new sports marketing manager
MUMBAI: He’s played every inning in the broadcast game and now he’s switching teams. Veteran sports marketing professional Dayanand Bhoite has joined JioStar as manager marketing excellence for sports, marking a new chapter in a career that has spanned nearly two decades at Disney Star.
Based in Mumbai, Bhoite steps into the JioStar role after spending 18 years and two months at Disney Star, where he was instrumental in shaping some of India’s biggest sporting spectacles on television. From handling Star Sports’ Pro Kabaddi Seasons 1 to 9 to leading the creative push for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, Bhoite’s work has been synonymous with precision, passion, and production brilliance.
Over the years, Bhoite has managed everything from live sports promos and on-air campaigns to the intricate versioning of multilingual sports content across Star’s regional networks including Star Vijay, Suvarna Plus, Star Jalsha, Asianet, and Maa TV. His expertise in coordinating cross-departmental workflows from marketing and programming to graphics and scheduling helped ensure that every campaign hit the airwaves seamlessly.
During his tenure as producer, Star Sports, Bhoite also helmed the ‘Cricket Live Now’ project and supervised the Star Sports Versioning Department, ensuring quality control and consistency across broadcast markets. His earlier stint as Associate Producer at Star Movies saw him involved in the launch of Star World HD, Star Movies HD, and Star Movies Action major milestones in Star India’s English entertainment expansion.
He began his broadcast journey as a mastering & versioning producer with Star Plus, Star One, Star Gold, and Star Utsav, managing day-to-day packaging and promo workflows while supporting the launch of new shows and channels.
Armed with a Diploma in Film and Video Studies from Digital Academy Mumbai (2008) and a Bachelor’s degree in Arts from Kalinga University, Raipur (First Class, 2022), Bhoite blends creative storytelling with operational discipline, a mix that’s served him well in India’s fast-paced sports broadcast landscape.
At JioStar, Bhoite is expected to bring that same mix of marketing precision and creative agility to build the next phase of the company’s sports content strategy.
With this move, it’s safe to say after 18 years under the Star, Dayanand Bhoite is ready to rise with a new one.
MAM
ASCI study uncovers how Gen Alpha navigates ads in endless digital feeds
‘What the Sigma?’ ethnographic report maps blurred boundaries between content and commerce for 7–15-year-olds.
MUMBAI: Gen Alpha isn’t scrolling through the internet, they’re living rent-free inside its never-ending dopamine drip, and the ads have already moved in next door. The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) Academy, partnering with Futurebrands Consulting, has published ‘What the Sigma?’, an immersive ethnographic study that maps how Indian children aged 7–15 (Generation Alpha) consume, interpret and live alongside media and commercial messaging in a hyper-digital environment.
The research draws on in-home interviews, sibling and peer conversations, and discussions with parents, teachers, counsellors, psychologists, marketers and kidfluencers across six cities. It examines not only what children watch but how algorithms, content creators, peers and parents shape their relationship with the constant stream of shorts, vlogs, gameplay, memes, sponsored posts and ‘kid-ified’ adult material.
Five core themes emerged:
- Discontinuous Generation, Gen Alpha is not growing up alongside the internet, they are growing up inside it. Cultural references, humour, aesthetics and language sync globally in real time, often leaving adults functionally illiterate in their children’s world. A reference that lands instantly for a 10-year-old in Mumbai or Visakhapatnam feels opaque or disjointed to most parents.
- Authority Vacuum, Parents and teachers frequently lose cultural fluency in digital spaces. The algorithm responsive, inexhaustible and perfectly attuned to preferences becomes the most attentive presence in many children’s daily lives. Rules around screen time feel increasingly difficult to enforce when adults cannot fully see or understand the content landscape.
- Digital as Society, Online and offline no longer exist as separate realms, they form one continuous reality. The phone is not a tool children pick up; it is the primary social environment they inhabit.
- Great Media Mukbang, Content flows as an ambient, boundary-less, multi-sensorial stream. Entertainment, advertising, commerce, gameplay, memes and vlogs merge into one undifferentiated feed. The line between active choice and passive absorption has largely collapsed.
- Blurred Ad Recognition, Children aged 7–12 typically recognise only the most overt advertising formats. Influencer promotions, gaming integrations and vlog sponsorships often register as organic entertainment. Children aged 13–15 show greater ad literacy but remain highly susceptible to narrative-integrated, passion-driven and emotionally resonant brand messaging. Discernment remains low across the board in a non-stop stream.
ASCI CEO and secretary general Manisha Kapoor said, “ASCI Academy’s study is an investigation into the content life of Generation Alpha not to judge them but to understand them. Their cultural reference points seem disjointed from those of earlier generations. Insights on how they perceive advertising is the first step towards building more responsible engagement frameworks, given that they are the youngest media consumers in our country right now.”
Futurebrands Consulting founder and director Santosh Desai added, “While earlier generations have been exposed to digital media, for this generation it is the world they inhabit. This report explores not only what they watch but how they are being shaped by algorithms, content and advertising.”
The study proposes four adaptive, principles-led pathways:
- Universal signposting of commercial intent using design principles that make advertising recognisable even to young audiences.
- Ecosystem-wide responsibility shared among advertisers, platforms, creators, schools and parents.
- Future-ready safeguards built directly into children’s content experiences rather than as optional background settings.
- Formal media and advertising literacy embedded in school curricula to teach age-appropriate understanding of persuasion and commercial intent.
In a feed that never pauses, Gen Alpha isn’t merely watching content, they’re swimming in an ocean where entertainment, commerce and identity swirl together. The real question isn’t whether they can spot an ad; it’s whether the adults building the ocean can agree on where the lifeguards should stand.
