MAM
GroupM launches Finecast in India, brings ‘addressable TV advertising’ to Indian advertisers
Mumbai: GroupM, the media investment group of WPP on Tuesday announced the launch of Finecast in India, a ‘first-to-market addressable TV service.’ It would enable advertisers to target households with relevant TV ads across multiple TV channels, pay-TV platforms and set-top boxes, a range of video on demand (VOD) services, over-the-top (OTT) providers, and game consoles.
The evolving consumption habits of the audience have given rise to complexities in planning and reaching audiences on TV. Finecast attempts to solve this challenge by providing a single point of access to the whole addressable TV ecosystem, managing distribution and frequency holistically across broadcasters and screens to deliver relevant ads wherever they are viewing content, said the company in a statement.
“Our key partnerships with best-in-class data providers facilitate intelligent segmentation of audiences by socioeconomics, life-stage and financial behaviours providing highly precise TV audience profiles. This enables Finecast to show different ads to different households who are watching the same TV program, thereby making their advertising more effective and driving cost efficiencies,” it further said.
“As the largest media advertising company in the world, GroupM is able to create the scale of partnerships required to find relevant audiences in the fragmented TV landscape,” stated GroupM South Asia CEO Prasanth Kumar. “With finecast, we have partnered the top content providers, broadcasters, platforms and data providers in India to build this market that will inevitably add more value to GroupM’s clients in India.”
Finecast’s model includes partnerships across leading broadcasters who develop high-quality premium and brand-safe content, as well as distribution platforms with further partnerships to be announced later this year.
“There is no better time to watch TV, as the ad experience is ore in line with audience content and behaviour preferences,” remarked GroupM president data, performance & digital products Atique Kazi. “We know TV still reigns supreme in India people are just changing the way they consume content. Finecast gives GroupM’s clients a holistic view of, and access to, their audience, regardless of where they are watching.”
Digital
India leads global adoption of ChatGPT Images 2.0 in first week
From anime avatars to fantasy covers, users turn AI visuals into culture
NEW DELHI: India has emerged as the largest user base for ChatGPT Images 2.0, just a week after its launch by OpenAI, underlining the country’s growing influence on global internet trends.
While the tool was introduced as an advanced image-generation upgrade within ChatGPT, Indian users are quickly reshaping its purpose. Instead of sticking to productivity-led use cases, many are embracing it as a creative playground for self-expression, storytelling and online identity.
From anime-style portraits and cinematic headshots to tarot-inspired visuals and fictional newspaper front pages, the model is being used to create highly stylised, shareable content. Features such as accurate text rendering, multilingual prompts and the ability to generate detailed visuals with minimal input have helped drive rapid adoption.
What sets the latest model apart is its ability to “think” through prompts, generating multiple outputs and adapting to context, including real-time web inputs. But the bigger story lies in how users are engaging with it.
In India, trends are already taking shape. Popular formats include dramatic studio-style lighting edits, LinkedIn-ready headshots, manga-inspired avatars, soft pastel “spring” aesthetics, AI-led fashion moodboards, paparazzi-style visuals and fantasy newspaper covers. Users are also restoring old photographs, creating tarot-style imagery and experimenting with futuristic design concepts.
Local flavour is adding another layer. Prompts such as cinematic portrait collages and Y2K-inspired romantic edits are gaining traction, blending global aesthetics with distinctly Indian internet culture.
The surge reflects a broader shift in how AI tools are being used in the country, moving beyond utility to creativity. As younger users, creators and social media enthusiasts experiment with new visual formats, AI-generated imagery is increasingly becoming part of everyday digital expression.
If early trends hold, ChatGPT Images 2.0 may not just be a tech upgrade but a cultural moment, giving millions a new visual language to play with online.
