MAM
Global mobile media firm Mobile Streams gains foothold in Asia
MUMBAI: Global mobile media specialist Mobile Streams has acquired the mobile entertainment group Mobilemode.
Founded in 1999, Mobilemode delivers mobile entertainment content and services to mobile phone operators and portals in the Asia Pacific region.
The acquisition of Mobilemode will give Mobile Streams a comprehensive position in Asia Pacific, with a particularly strong focus on Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong. In addition, the acquisition will offer Mobile Streams the immediate benefit of Mobilemode’s experienced management team, and their strong relationships with portals and mobile network operators.
Mobilemode’s key network operator customers are SingTel-Optus, Virgin Mobile and Hutchison 3G in Australia, SingTel and M1 in Singapore and Maxis and Astro in Malaysia. Mobilemode also has strong distribution relationships with eBay, Electronic Arts, Nokia and Discovery Networks, an affiliate of Liberty Media, Mobile Streams’ strategic investor.
Mobilemode’s management team has worked in Asia for many years and will be invaluable in supplementing Mobile Streams’ existing business in the region. The two founding members of Mobilemode, its CEO Jarno Salmivuori and and VP business development Norma Salmivuori will assume management positions within Mobile Streams’ Asia Pacific business unit.
For the year to 31 March 2006, Mobilemode recorded turnover of €1.1m and profit before tax of approximately €48,000.
Mobile Streams CEO Simon Buckingham said, “This acquisition represents a key milestone in the development of Mobile Streams’ global footprint. Mobilemode will provide us with an excellent stepping stone into the advanced markets of Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore whilst at the same time providing a platform for growth in the emerging markets of Taiwan, Indonesia and the Philippines.”
Jarno Salmivuori said, “Mobilemode has established strong relationships and operations in Asia which we look forward to developing and growing further through the combination with Mobile Streams.”
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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.
