MAM
Global ad market to dip 7% this year; India impact lower: IPG Magna
NEW DELHI: After battling the worst impact of global lockdown ensued by Covid2019 in the current year, the global economy will embrace a positive future in 2021 fuelling the marketing budgets and advertising spending, predicts the recently released IPG Magna forecast. MAGNA predicts global ad spend to grow by 6.1 per cent to $573 billion, $9 billion smaller than its pre-Covid2019 level. EMEA region is expected to grow by 7.1 per cent, APAC by 8.1 per cent, LATAM by 6.7 per cent, and NA by 4.0 per cent.
MAGNA EVP global market intelligence and author of the report Vincent Létang said, “Beyond the short-term V-shaped recession/recovery impact on the economy and the advertising market, the Covid2019 crisis will have global and long-term effects on society, business models, consumption habits, mobility and media usage, all factors pointing to a more subdued economic growth and advertising spend than previously forecast for the 2022-2024 period. MAGNA thus reduces its global advertising growth forecast for these three years, from +4.5 per cent per year to +3.5 per cent per year. The global ad market will reach $647 billion by 2021 compared to $745 billion in our previous long-term scenario, a 14 per cent decrease.”
As per the forecast, Covid2019 is going to have a sizeable impact on the global advertising market, dipping the ad revenues by seven per cent in 2020. While, EMEA and Latin America will be experiencing the worst downturn, with total advertising revenues down by 10 per cent, among the worst downturns predicted by MAGNA in 2020 Japan and Spain (both -14 per cent), France (-13 per cent) and Italy (-15 per cent). India (+2 per cent), China (-6 per cent) and the US market (-4 per cent) will be less dramatically affected, it highlighted.
“Media owners’ advertising revenues will decrease by $42 billion in 2020, from $582 billion to $540 billion, as advertising spending shrinks due to the severe economic recession triggered by the Covid2019 pandemic, as GDP is expected to contract between -5 per cent and -12 per cent across the world’s largest markets. Global advertising revenues will decrease by an estimated -7 per cent, as the heavy, double-digit decline of linear ad sales (linear TV, print, linear radio, OOH, cinema), -16 per cent to $238 billion, will be mitigated by the stability of digital formats: +1% to $302 billion,” read the forecast.
Digital formats advertising sales are expected to be flat, recording just a per cent hike, touching $302 billion as a second-half recovery will offset the first-half decline.
Digital formats benefit from increased digital media usage during the lockdown, an acceleration of e-commerce that will likely outlive the lockdown, and a boost to lower-funnel marketing tools that is classic in recession times.
“Search will remain the largest digital advertising formats ($142 billion) but global sales will stagnate (-1 per cent). Social media and digital ad formats will slow down from previous years but still grow single-digit this year (both +8 per cent) while the revenues of static banner ads will fall by -11 per cent as the Covid2019 crisis adds to the increasing restrictions on data-based targeting,” highlights the forecast.
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.
