MAM
Chennaiyin FC announce Nivia as official kit partner
MUMBAI: Two-time Indian Super League (ISL) champions Chennaiyin FC (CFC) has signed sports brand Nivia as the official kit partner on a multi-year deal, starting from the 2021-22 season.
The Indian sports equipment manufacturer based in Jalandhar, Punjab has strong footprints in the football ecosystem in the country, as well as Asia. Nivia had associated with ISL in 2018 with a three-year multi-crore deal as the football league’s official ball partner. It has also worked with national football federations of India, Sri Lanka, and Bhutan.
“We are excited to team up with Nivia, one of the most successful sports brands in the football ecosystem in India. This partnership clearly underlines our ascendancy within the sport and will help us widen our reach across Tamil Nadu through their distribution network. We are always keen to associate with brands that share the same passion for the sport as us and we welcome them to the Chennaiyin family,” CFC co-owner Vita Dani said about the partnership.
With shared values and a compelling sporting proposition, coming together of both the brands will go a long way in helping Marina Machans tap the large and passionate football fan base from the region. This strategic partnership will also ensure the club explores various opportunities to develop football in the grassroots further alongside this indigenous brand.
Nivia managing director Rajesh Kharabanda said, “The new season of the ISL is around the corner and Nivia is extremely proud to be kick-starting the association with the two-time champions, Chennaiyin FC. To manufacture the kits for them with the Dhrishti Bommai logo — the symbol of chasing away negativity and bringing the positivity — is an absolute honour. We hope this new collaboration between Chennaiyin FC and Nivia helps bring out the best. Finally, we wish the team all the best for the upcoming season and hope to have an extremely fruitful association over the coming few seasons.”
Nivia will have exclusive retailing rights to CFC’s take-down and replica jerseys, adding pan-India merchandise reach for the franchise across retail and e-commerce channels. The collection will also comprise a fanwear selection of polo tees, shorts, trousers and boots, underscoring both brands’ desire to enhance the collaboration beyond a traditional sports sponsorship model.
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.
