MAM
It’s ‘Agility’ for festival of Media Asia Pacific
MUMBAI: The Festival of Media Asia Pacific (FOMAP), the largest gathering of media leaders in Asia Pacific, is back for its third year.
“The theme of this year’s event is ‘Agility’, and will see influential speakers sharing unique regional perspectives on how businesses can be more ‘agile’ in adapting to the ever-changing media landscape,” said, Founder of Festival of Media and Chairman of C Squared Charlie Crowe. “Attendees will have the opportunity to learn about some of the most topical issues affecting the industry today, whilst getting the chance to network with a broad range of media companies from across Asia.”
Topics being discussed at the 2014 event include the future of Native Advertising in Asia, virtual media trading, social media in the newly-opened up Myanmar, unlocking the potential of Indian consumers and understanding Bitcoin, among others.
The Festival will attract over 700 delegates from across 22 countries in Asia, who will be coming together to hear from some of the media industry’s most agile and forward-thinking leaders.
Charlie Crowe added, “A stellar line-up of exciting industry speakers, excellent awards programs, and thought-provoking content, all within the larger Asian media context, means that FOMAP 2014 is set to be the most exciting yet.”
Some of the speakers for the event include:
Linda Yueh, Chief Business Correspondent, BBC World News
Rita Nguyen, Co-Founder and CEO, SQUAR
Vipul Chawla, VP and CMO, Yum! Asia
Mark Laudi, Former CNBC presenter
Daryl Lee, Global CEO, UM
Leo Liang, Senior Director of National Business Development, Youku Tudou
Steve Mosko, President, Sony Pictures Television
Scott Lamb, VP of International, Buzzfeed
Lakshmi Pratury, Host and Curator, The INK Conference
Rose Tsou, Senior Vice President, APAC, Yahoo!
Peter Vessenes, Founder and CEO, CoinLab, Chairman Bitcoin Foundation
Manmeet Vohra, Marketing Director, Tata Starbucks
Jerry Wind, Professor, Wharton Future of Advertising Program
The festival will take place from 16-18 March at the Capella Singapore.
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.
