MAM
Media Expo Mumbai 2026 to spotlight booming digital signage sector
57th edition at BEC expects 140 plus exhibitors and 350 plus products from 9 to 11 April.
MUMBAI: India’s outdoor advertising just lit the fuse on a billion-dollar glow-up because when billboards go digital, even the walls start selling dreams. The 57th Media Expo Mumbai will take place from 9–11 April 2026 at the Bombay Exhibition Centre, bringing together the fast-evolving world of digital signage, LED systems, POP/POSM solutions and sustainable visual communication technologies.
Organised by Messe Frankfurt, the three-day event will cover 15,000 sqm and feature over 140 exhibitors representing more than 250 brands, including major players such as HP, Epson India, Colorjet, Mimaki, Garware and Pidilite. International participation from China, Italy and South Korea will add global flavour to the showcase of 350 plus cutting-edge products.
Messe Frankfurt Asia Holdings Ltd, executive director Raj Manek said, “The industry has decisively embraced digital transformation. We are at a pivotal juncture where signage is no longer just a nameplate, but a versatile ecosystem spanning interior décor and massive OOH media.”
The expo arrives as India’s outdoor advertising market is projected to nearly double from $576.3 million in 2025 to $1,075.5 million by 2033, growing at a compound annual rate of 8.2 plus, according to Grand View Research. Rising commercial construction, retail expansion and demand for immersive, eco-conscious displays are fuelling the surge.
Small and medium enterprises remain the backbone of the sector, supplying innovative solutions for everything from high-tech films to adhesives. The event provides a key platform for these players to connect with global technology and showcase products that power India’s visual communication landscape.
From flashing LEDs that turn shopfronts into storytellers to sustainable materials that keep the planet breathing, Media Expo Mumbai 2026 isn’t just a trade show, it’s where the future of how brands shout, whisper and seduce gets its annual dress rehearsal.
AD Agencies
Abhay Duggal joins JioStar as director of Hindi GEC ad sales
The streaming giant brings in a seasoned revenue hand as the battle for Hindi television advertising heats up
MUMBAI: Abhay Duggal has a new desk, and JioStar has a new weapon. The media and entertainment veteran has joined JioStar as director of entertainment ad sales for Hindi general entertainment channels, adding 17 years of hard-won revenue experience to one of India’s most powerful broadcasting operations.
Duggal is no stranger to big portfolios or bruising markets. Before joining JioStar, he spent a brief stint at Republic World as deputy general manager and north regional head for ad sales. Before that, he put in three years at Enterr10 Television, where he ran the north region for Dangal TV and Dangal 2, two of India’s leading free-to-air Hindi channels. The north alone accounted for more than 50 per cent of total channel revenue on his watch, a number that tends to get attention in any sales meeting.
His longest stint was at Zee Entertainment Enterprises, where he spent over six years rising to associate director of sales. There he commanded the Hindi movies cluster across seven channels, owned more than half of north India’s revenue across flagship properties including Zee TV and &TV, and closed marquee sponsorships across the Indian Premier League, Zee Rishtey Awards and Dance India Dance. He also handled monetisation for the English movies and entertainment cluster and the global news channel WION, a portfolio that would stretch most sales teams twice his size.
Earlier in his career Duggal closed what was then a Rs 3 crore single deal at Reliance Broadcast Network, one of the largest in Indian radio at the time, before that he helped launch and monetise JAINHITS, India’s first HITS-based cable and satellite platform.
His edge, by his own account, lies in marrying data and instinct: translating audience trends, inventory signals and client demands into long-term partnerships built on cost-per-rating-point discipline rather than short-term deal chasing. In a media landscape being reshaped by streaming, fragmented attention and AI-driven advertising, that kind of rigour is increasingly rare and increasingly valuable.
JioStar, which blends the scale of Reliance’s Jio platform with the content firepower of Star, is doubling down on its advertising business at precisely the moment the Hindi GEC market is getting more competitive. Bringing in someone who has spent nearly two decades doing exactly this, across some of India’s most watched channels, is a pointed statement of intent. Duggal has spent his career turning audiences into revenue. JioStar is clearly betting he can do it again, and bigger.
