MAM
MEC forecasts 5.4 TVR for KBC in opening weekend
MUMBAI: Some more good news for Sony Entertainment Television. The channel‘s mega game show, Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC), which is kicking off its sixth season on 7 September, is expected to clock 5.4 TVR in its opening weekend, according to MEC‘s latest forecast.
This will be 10 per cent higher than the previous edition of the Amitabh Bachchan-hosted show. MEC, a leading media buying and planning agency and a founding partner of GroupM, has based its estimation among audiences above 15 years from SEC ABC in cable and satellite homes.
So what will give KBC a big boost this year? MEC believes Sony as a channel has grown its viewership base since the launch of KBC last year. The rise in base viewership for the channel will pump up the show‘s ratings this year.
The second beneficial factor is the shifting of the show to the weekends this year. This will ensure that KBC doesn‘t clash with the weekly soaps.
The buzz for the show gathered from search volumes is almost double of last season‘s, according to MEC.
Says MEC National Director, Analytics & Insight Geetha Shiv, “The performance of this season of KBC will be followed closely by media and clients given that last season had helped Sony displace competition. MEC‘s initiative in estimating ratings of such high expectation properties like IPL, World Cup and now KBC, is part of our endeavour to deliver insights that help our clients in formulating their investment decisions.”
MEC outlines four key influencing factors: program promotions on the channel, network and also other channels; promotion across other media like radio and newspapers; search volume index as a measure of viewer buzz; and the base channel share of Sony.
MEC, which had earlier estimated ratings for the Indian Premier League, has again partnered Meritus Analytics India to estimate KBC ratings.
According to MEC, the approach used for KBC was based on past learning from IPL estimation and the fact that increase in TVRs for a new program is due to a combination of increase in PUT (People Using Television) and people already viewing Television moving to the new program from their regular programming. MEC and Meritus built a statistical model using a set of TV shows to understand the factors affecting PUT and channel share for such non-sports programs.
Says Meritus Analytics managing partner Sunder Muthuraman, “For big properties where the cost of association is high, the rating the program delivers can be looked at as a very simple measure of ROI. We have used best in class statistical methods to estimate KBC ratings. Our finding that KBC advertising on other channels had the highest impact on the increased PUT of the program time slot seems to suggest that substantial part of the increased rating is likely from viewers of other channels and time bands tuning into Sony during KBC.”
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.
