Digital
How the IPL helped brands grow digitally
MUMBAI: It’s a well-established fact that the Indian Premier League is a sure fire property to help brands get off the mark with consumers and even score well with them. Hundreds of brands have bought what is considered to be some of the priciest sponsorships and free commercial time slots and reaped just rewards.
Now here’s some more research and analysis which proves how solid and steady a partnership the IPL can build with brands. Brought out by the digital first agency, Mumbai-based Tidal7, it highlights, how IPL2023 shaped into a tournament bigger than ever before with a record of concurrent viewers on JioCinema and a total audience of 505 million on Disney Star. That helped brands to get a tremendous leg up in terms of consumers conducting searches on them or visiting their websites.
“We have looked at the brand search volumes and traffic data for a few of the prominent brands to demonstrate the differential digital brand lift that the IPL campaigns delivered,” says Tidal7’s head Venkat Mallik
Amongst the brands it studied include Tata Tiago EV, Rupay credit card on UPI, Tata Neu, Jindal Panther TMT Rebars and Vega trimmers.
To begin with, Tata Tiago saw an upsurge of 190 per cent in organic searches between March 2023 and April 2023 from 44,500 to 129,200 searches, even as direct traffic to the Tiago website skyrocketed 1,106 per cent from 4,100 to 49,900 from April 2023 to May 2023.
Thanks to the high decibel advertising fired at viewers, Rupay credit card saw a jump of 439 per cent in search volumes on Google between March 2023 and April 2023. Visitors tromping onto the brand’s website directly increased 235.72 per cent from 43,460 to 1.5 million in the same period even as organic searches rose 229.45 per cent from 11,240 to 37,030.
Tata Neu which accounted for three per cent of ad volumes during the IPL had some good outcomes too. Internet surfers using the brand’s keywords on Google rose 124 per cent between April and May 2023. Search volumes for both Jindal Panther TMT bars and Vega Trimmers rose 83 per cent each between April 2023 and May 2023.
“Essentially, many of the advertisers did get a massive lift in branded search volumes and organic traffic from their advertising on the IPL,” highlights Mallik. “That is not possible using any other single event or media platform at this stage in India. The IPL is indeed the NFL of India.”
With that kind of endorsement, it’s no wonder that the BCCI and IPL mandarins, Disney Star and JioCinema executives are grinning from ear to ear.
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.
