MAM
Bright lights up festive season as outdoor ads shine with double-digit glow
MUMBAI: This festive season, the outdoors are looking anything but dull. As streets dazzle with lights and shopfronts sparkle with offers, Bright Outdoor Media (BOM) is gearing up for a season of high visibility literally. The company expects strong double-digit growth in ad spends this Diwali, fuelled by a cocktail of economic optimism, brand buzz, and an unmistakable festive pulse on the streets.
Leading the charge, the real estate sector has taken centre stage, wrapping city skylines in giant hoardings and LED glows announcing new projects. From FMCG and e-commerce to automobiles, consumer electronics, jewellery, and fashion, nearly every sector is upping its outdoor presence to capture festive shoppers’ attention. The result: India’s cities are once again turning into open-air galleries of marketing ambition.
But it isn’t just traditional categories making noise. Fintech, BFSI, health and wellness, D2C, and quick commerce players are also stepping into the OOH frame, using the medium to push festive payment offers, cashback deals, and brand discovery. With outdoor spaces offering both scale and immediacy, even digital-first brands are realising that nothing beats the visibility of a billboard at a bustling junction.
“We are witnessing robust demand across brand categories this festive season, with advertisers focusing on visibility, innovation and impact,” said Bright Outdoor Media CMD Yogesh Lakhani. “Large-format visibility, digital billboards and integrated campaigns are driving the momentum, and we expect strong double-digit growth compared to last year.”
At the heart of this surge is the rise of Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH). Bright Outdoor, already among India’s largest operators of big-size LED billboards, is riding the wave of dynamic and data-driven displays. These screens allow advertisers to adapt messaging in real time from countdown offers to live sports updates making the outdoors feel as alive as the internet.
However, Bright isn’t dimming its faith in traditional billboards just yet. Static formats, the company says, remain the cornerstone of mass visibility vital for brands seeking long-term impact or presence beyond metros. Lakhani explains, “Digital and interactive formats will continue to gain preference, but large-format billboards will always be critical for brand recall and reach. The future is hybrid where technology meets tradition.”
The festive glow isn’t confined to big cities either. With Tier-2 and Tier-3 markets witnessing a consumption boom, brands are extending their OOH footprints into regional India. From high-footfall malls in Pune and Jaipur to highways connecting emerging industrial towns, the billboard boom is spreading fast.
As the first outdoor media company listed on the BSE, Bright Outdoor Media continues to consolidate its leadership across Mumbai and the wider MMR region, claiming nearly 50 per cent of Mumbai’s OOH market. Its stronghold, built on long-term client partnerships and a robust portfolio of owned media assets, is now expanding into a digital frontier with more LED installations across transit hubs and high-traffic zones.
The company’s hybrid model combining static strength with digital agility could very well define the future of Indian outdoor advertising. For now, though, Bright’s billboards are doing exactly what their name promises: keeping the festive season shining, one giant frame at a time.
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.
