MAM
IAA debate: Metro markets are losing their sheen to tier II & III towns?
MUMBAI: The first in a new season of IAA Debates, organised by the International Advertising Association (IAA) India Chapter and presented by the Dainik Bhaskar group, will be held on Friday, November 28, 2014 at Gallops, Mahalakshmi Race Course, Mumbai.
Industry captains will speak for and against the motion on: Metro Markets are losing their sheen to Tier II & III Towns for Consumer Products/Services. The speakers are
• Sadashiv Nayak, CEO, Future Retail Ltd
• Ronita Mitra, Senior VP, Brand Communication & Insights, Vodafone India
• Amitabh Pande, Senior Director – Consumer Insights and Strategy, PepsiCo India Region
• Atul Phadnis, CEO, Whats-On and GM (APAC), Gracenote
The debate will be moderated by Mini Menon, Executive Editor, Bloomberg TV India.
Srinivasan K Swamy, President, IAA India Chapter & Vice President – Development, Asia Pacific, IAA and Chairman & Managing Director, R K SWAMY HANSA Group, on the new season of IAA Debates said, “The IAA Debates has traditionally seen industry leaders deliberate on topics of vital importance to the stakeholders we serve. We have had debates on the relevance of print and TV in the digital age – whether social media is a good business, the role of creative becoming more critical with media fragmentation. I am happy that the new season of IAA Debates is kicking off with a topic of much relevance to the fraternity.”
Pradeep Dwivedi, Chief – Marketing & Corporate Sales Officer, D B Corp Ltd. added, “We are delighted to partner with IAA in bringing the thought-provoking industry debates again to the entire advertising & marketing fraternity. The great French essayist, Jospeh Joubert, once famously said that ‘It is better to debate a question without settling it than to settle a question without debating it.’ At Dainik Bhaskar, it is our constant endeavour to contribute to this spirit of discovery and hence be a harbinger of change and evolution. We look forward to the upcoming Dainik Bhaskar-IAA debates as an important step in that direction.”
The IAA Debates hosted so far have been in Mumbai, Goa, Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai. The Debates have featured senior advertising, media and marketing professionals such as Prasoon Joshi, Vikram Sakhuja, Lloyd Mathias, Josy Paul, Pratap Bose, Deepika Warrier, Anupriya Acharya, Arun Anant, Arunabh Das Sharma, Partha Sinha, Monica Tata, Vikram Chandra, Punitha Arumugam, Mahesh Murthy, Virginia Sharma, Ashok Lalla and Zerin Rahman, speaking for and against the motion.
Delegates (including media) wishing to attend the IAA Debates on November 28, need to pre-register at execseciaa@gmail. Or call: +91 22 2874566 (Extn 162). Please send in your name, designation and organisation represented. A limited number of seats are available and you will be intimated by the IAA India Chapter.
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.
