MAM
Cereone Media partners with Yahoo DSP to revolutionise Indian advertising
MUMBAI: Advertisers, rejoice! The future of programmatic advertising in India just got a major upgrade. Cereone Media has partnered with Yahoo demand-side platform (DSP) to supercharge ad campaigns with AI-driven insights, omnichannel reach, and precision targeting. Effective immediately, this collaboration promises to put Indian brands in the fast lane of digital marketing, arming them with the best-in-class programmatic tools Yahoo DSP has to offer.
In the cutthroat world of digital advertising, brands demand more than just flashy impressions. They crave transparency, razor-sharp audience insights, and return on investment that makes CFOs sleep easier at night. Enter Yahoo DSP- a powerhouse platform backed by AI-driven optimisation, premium ad inventory, and robust identity solutions. Through this alliance, Cereone Media aims to help advertisers decode complex consumer behaviours and turn data into pure marketing gold.
What’s in store for Indian advertisers? A whole new level of precision. Yahoo DSP’s omnichannel capabilities allow brands to seamlessly run and optimise campaigns across mobile, desktop, and even Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH). Meanwhile, its AI-powered engine, Yahoo Blueprint, analyses vast data signals to provide real-time campaign adjustments, ensuring brands get maximum bang for their advertising buck.
“Advertisers today demand greater accountability, efficiency, and transparency from their media investments. By integrating Yahoo DSP’s robust programmatic technology with Cereone Media’s expertise, we are empowering Indian brands to make data-driven decisions, optimise performance, and scale their advertising strategies globally,” said Cereone Media Pvt Ltd co-founder & director Deepak Karnani.
Yahoo head of commercial sales, southeast Asia, Kenneth Koh added, “We’re excited to work with Cereone Media to bring more powerful programmatic solutions to Indian advertisers. With Yahoo DSP, Cereone can help brands navigate an evolving digital landscape—giving them smarter optimisation, premium inventory, and privacy-first identity solutions to drive real business impact.”
This partnership doesn’t just stop at programmatic wizardry. By teaming up with both Yahoo and FreeWheel, Cereone Media is unlocking new frontiers in addressable TV advertising. With premium inventory and Yahoo ConnectID’s precise targeting capabilities, Indian brands can now craft hyper-personalised campaigns that drive engagement and real business results.
Cereone Media Pvt Ltd co-founder Harish Patil commented, “Partnering with both Yahoo and FreeWheel enables us to bring addressable TV to Indian advertisers. With premium inventory from FreeWheel and Yahoo ConnectID, our clients can achieve precision targeting and gain accurate performance insights to optimise their campaigns effectively.”
With Yahoo DSP already trusted by Fortune 500 brands worldwide, this partnership signals a new era for Indian advertisers-one where data reigns supreme, AI takes the wheel, and programmatic advertising is smarter, faster, and more effective than ever before.
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.
