MAM
Seagram’s Royal Stag partners with Delhi Capitals for IPL 2022
Mumbai: Delhi Capitals is set to collaborate with Seagram’s Royal Stag for the upcoming 2022 season of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
With this association, Royal Stag is poised to further bolster its engagement with cricket lovers across the country and cement its loyalty towards the game via sustained engagement with fans throughout the season, said the statement.
“IPL ensures that millions of men and women remain glued to the telecast across almost two months, living the highs and lows of their favourite teams,” said Pernod Ricard India CMO Kartik Mohindra, speaking on the sponsorship. “Delhi Capitals is a superb blend of international and Indian stars, and their brand of cricket is a heady cocktail of natural talent and astute strategy. We are very excited to partner with Delhi Capitals for the forthcoming IPL season. With young cricketing star Rishabh Pant captaining the ship for Delhi Capitals, we know we will get the attention of millennials towards our brand. Cricket being one of India’s biggest passions, we wanted to use the platform of T20 to connect with our consumers using the cultures of Delhi and ethos of the team Delhi capitals.”
“For us at Delhi Capitals, it’s important to associate with brands that value the sport and understand the emotions attached to it. Royal Stag stands for all of that, and I am confident this will be a successful partnership for both of us, as we look ahead to a splendid season of cricket,” stated Delhi Capitals executive director Dhiraj Malhotra.
“From the first time I came to India in 2000, I have always known that Royal Stag has been associated with cricket,” commented Delhi Capitals assistant coach Shane Watson. “The brand has always had a deep relationship with cricket. It’s always in the front in any tournament that I have played. I think it’s going to be a great partnership between Delhi Capitals and Royal Stag.”
Delhi Capitals will be playing the team’s first match on 27 March. The team is led by wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant.
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.
