MAM
Boult tunes into success with record growth in India’s wearables market
MUMBAI: Boult is turning up the volume in India’s wearables market, emerging as the fastest-growing brand in the True Wireless Stereo (TWS) segment. According to the latest International Data Corporation (IDC) report, Boult recorded an impressive 52 per cent growth in shipments, even as the overall wearables market faced an 11.3% year-on-year (YoY) decline. The brand’s market share rose from 9.7 per cent in 2023 to 12.9 per cent in 2024, solidifying its position as India’s leading homegrown TWS brand.
Despite a tough landscape where smartwatch shipments plunged by 34.4 per cent and earwear grew only 3.8 per cent YoY, Boult defied the trend with double-digit growth. The brand’s total market share increased from 6.9 per cent (CY23) to 8.6 per cent (CY24), while its TWS market share jumped from 10.7 per cent to 13.0 per cent, reflecting a 32.8 per cent YoY growth.
Boult founder Varun Gupta remarked, “Our success in the TWS and wearables segment is a result of our unwavering focus on innovation, design, and quality. We are committed to offering top-tier technology at accessible price points while continuing to strengthen our presence in India’s manufacturing ecosystem.”
Boult’s financial performance also hit high notes, with Rs 600 crore in revenue for 2024-25 and projections to surpass Rs 800 crore in the current fiscal year. Its Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) has crossed Rs 1,000 crore, reinforcing its strong consumer demand and market influence. Strengthening its premium positioning, the Boult x Mustang collaboration has fuelled a 10 per cent market share rise in the Rs 1,500 – Rs 2,000 TWS segment.
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Abhay Duggal joins JioStar as director of Hindi GEC ad sales
The streaming giant brings in a seasoned revenue hand as the battle for Hindi television advertising heats up
MUMBAI: Abhay Duggal has a new desk, and JioStar has a new weapon. The media and entertainment veteran has joined JioStar as director of entertainment ad sales for Hindi general entertainment channels, adding 17 years of hard-won revenue experience to one of India’s most powerful broadcasting operations.
Duggal is no stranger to big portfolios or bruising markets. Before joining JioStar, he spent a brief stint at Republic World as deputy general manager and north regional head for ad sales. Before that, he put in three years at Enterr10 Television, where he ran the north region for Dangal TV and Dangal 2, two of India’s leading free-to-air Hindi channels. The north alone accounted for more than 50 per cent of total channel revenue on his watch, a number that tends to get attention in any sales meeting.
His longest stint was at Zee Entertainment Enterprises, where he spent over six years rising to associate director of sales. There he commanded the Hindi movies cluster across seven channels, owned more than half of north India’s revenue across flagship properties including Zee TV and &TV, and closed marquee sponsorships across the Indian Premier League, Zee Rishtey Awards and Dance India Dance. He also handled monetisation for the English movies and entertainment cluster and the global news channel WION, a portfolio that would stretch most sales teams twice his size.
Earlier in his career Duggal closed what was then a Rs 3 crore single deal at Reliance Broadcast Network, one of the largest in Indian radio at the time, before that he helped launch and monetise JAINHITS, India’s first HITS-based cable and satellite platform.
His edge, by his own account, lies in marrying data and instinct: translating audience trends, inventory signals and client demands into long-term partnerships built on cost-per-rating-point discipline rather than short-term deal chasing. In a media landscape being reshaped by streaming, fragmented attention and AI-driven advertising, that kind of rigour is increasingly rare and increasingly valuable.
JioStar, which blends the scale of Reliance’s Jio platform with the content firepower of Star, is doubling down on its advertising business at precisely the moment the Hindi GEC market is getting more competitive. Bringing in someone who has spent nearly two decades doing exactly this, across some of India’s most watched channels, is a pointed statement of intent. Duggal has spent his career turning audiences into revenue. JioStar is clearly betting he can do it again, and bigger.
