Digital
Sell-side ad firm Magnite launches Magnite Audiences in India
MUMBAI: It’s hoping to get a large enough agency side audience in India. Independent sell-side advertising company Magnite announced the expansion of Magnite Audiences and its debut in India and southeast Asia. The solution empowers publishers to unlock the full value of their audiences, while helping buyers connect with high value audiences at scale. Magnite Audiences sits within the Magnite Access suite, a collection of audience and addressability tools purpose-built for publishers and buyers to maximise the value of their data assets.
Magnite Audiences’ standardised, scalable segments based on publisher first-party data enable publishers to monetise their audiences and protect their user data. These audience segments, which include interest, purchase intent, demographic, seasonal and custom categories, provide the value and scale buyers want to achieve their campaign goals across key demographics. They offer significant reach from a trusted pool of standardised data originating from first party sources without compromising quality.
“It’s essential for us to be able to create value from the vast amount of data at our disposal so that we can both enable precise targeting for advertisers while also enhancing the user experience we provide,” said NDTV vice-president product monetisation & analytics Dinesh Joshi. “Leveraging Magnite Audiences is helping us tap into new revenue streams and increase the attractiveness of our ad offerings, while bringing more personalisation to our readers and viewers.”
“As a full-service digital marketing agency, we constantly look for new ways of activating audience data at scale,” said Interactive Avenues (the digital arm of IPG Mediabrands India) EVP, media & investment Harish Iyer. “We are confident that Magnite Audiences will play a pivotal role in this journey by helping us curate customized ad inventory that aligns with our clients’ campaign goals. We look forward to leveraging this partnership to drive measurable impact for leading brands.”
“Amid the changing identity landscape, buyers and publishers need to explore different models and approaches to solve for audience addressability,” said Magnite Asia managing director Gavin Buxton. “Magnite is committed to providing our clients with solutions like Magnite Audiences to help buyers and publishers package, find and reach audiences in new ways. The tool is ready and available for activation in India and southeast Asia, and we look forward to continued adoption as more publishers and buyers begin to leverage it to their benefit.”
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.
