Digital
Bitcentral’s ViewNexa integrates Google DAI to maximize ad revenue in streaming
Mumbai: Bitcentral Inc. the provider of award-winning efficient media workflows for broadcast and digital video, has integrated Google DAI into its ViewNexa linear streaming service to provide more monetization opportunities in linear and live streaming. The integration provides ViewNexa customers with access to Google’s advertising features that are specific to Google’s IMA DAI SDK.
All ViewNexa customers can now utilize Google’s IMA SDK, opening up access to additional Google features and advertisers. With streaming services facing increased competition and economic factors affecting audience demand for multiple paid subscriptions, streaming services are looking at broadening their options for generating revenue. It is essential to business success that they maximize the potential average revenue per user (ARPU) and offering hybrid subscription/advertising or free, ad-based viewing are becoming increasingly popular options. Through ViewNexa’s integration with Google DAI, customers can access new and untapped monetization opportunities to help drive their businesses forward.
The integration also helps streaming companies tap into one of the fastest-growing segments of digital advertising, Connected TV (CTV), which, according to dentsu, is forecast to see ad spending increase 14.7% year-on-year in the United States. Such growth is driven by viewers increasingly embracing ad-supported streaming subscriptions to access their favorite shows, growing nearly 25% year over year to 55.2 million in the first quarter of 2023, according to data firm Antenna.
Google DAI is a server-side dynamic ad insertion technology that enables a seamless, personalized ad experience at scale. It manages ad pod building, creative conditioning, and manifest manipulation. Google DAI stitches video content and ads into a single stream, removing the ad request and response process from the client-side SDK. As a result, it produces a high-quality TV-like experience without latency or buffering between content and ads. It is built directly into Google Ad Manager, which helps ViewNexa customers take advantage of advanced monetization software and machine learning to maximize their revenue across devices, for live and linear. With this integration, ViewNexa continues to provide their customers with even more options for monetization and ad insertion.
Bitcentral general manager – streaming media group Greg Morrow said, “Monetization is such an important factor for our customers, and ViewNexa is built with these needs in mind. Every streaming service and every audience has its own nuances, so flexibility is essential. Whether that’s subscriptions, advertising, in-app purchases, rewards-based viewing, with ViewNexa customers can deliver the best monetization strategy that works for them. And now we offer access to the most prominent advertising marketplace available via Google DAI. ViewNexa is removing the headaches of advertising, giving customers the tools to maximize revenue opportunities that would otherwise be beyond their reach.”
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.
