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Third Content Marketing Summit Asia announced list of speakers
MUMBAI: CMS Asia 2016 continues its tradition of delivering great content through a very unique set of experts & speakers year on year. As the event gets ready for its 3rdedition, the event organizers have released first list of speakers. This year experts from Facebook, Flipkart, Google, ScoopWhoop, ESPNCricinfo, Yashraj Films, Panasonic, Craftsvilla, Reliance, Autocar, GroupM, HCL, VML among others will be seen at the grand stage. The detailed first line up is as following
Brands
Senjam Raj Sekhar, Head of Corporate Communications, Flipkart
Sandeep Bhushan, Business Head – India & South Asia, Facebook
Amarjit Singh Batra, CEO, OLX
Pankaj Khushani, Head – Media Technology Solutions: SEA, India & Korea, Google
Naveen Malhotra, Head – Marketing & Product Planning, Mahindra Two Wheelers
Sarthak Seth, Head – Brand & Marketing Communications, Panasonic
Sandep Walunj, CMO, Reliance Nippon Life Insurance
Bianca Ghose, Chief Content Officer, HCL
Manish Kalra, Chief Business Officer, Craftsvilla
Publishers
Ashish Patil, Vice President, Yashraj Films
Sambit Bal, Editor-in-Chief, ESPNCricinfo
Sattvik Mishra, CEO, ScoopWhoop
Hormazd Sorabjee, Managing Director, Autocar India
Pradyuman Maheshwari, CEO, MXM India
Gautam Bhimani, Cricket Commentator
Marketing Partners & Agencies
Samir Bangara, Managing Director, Qyuki
Roopak Saluja, CEO, The 120 Media Collective
Mallikarjun Das, Group CEO, Starcom Mediavest Group
Tushar Vyas, Chief Strategy Officer, GroupM South Asia
Tripti Lochan, CEO, South East Asia & India, VML
As always, the largest content marketing conference in APAC brings together many C-Level experts to share their experience with delegates. The speakers are a good mix of advertisers, publishers, agency partners, technology providers & celebrities from Cricket & Bollywood. CMS Asia 2016 plans to have 30+ speakers for the 3rdedition.
The 3rd edition of annual Content Marketing Summit Asia plans to strike the right balance between Ground Reality & Virtual Reality which has always been the challenge for new age marketers but will be crucial as we step into the future of marketing. Content promises to be the bridge but is always looked at as a short-term tactic to win quickly. Scale & ROI have always been relatively unanswered questions when it comes to content marketing. While everyone tries to figure out wherein lies the future of marketing, CMS Asia 2016 provides a platform to explore it collectively. It also touches upon softer aspects like Quality of Content and Art of Storytelling for consumers today who are flirting with multiple platforms simultaneously. With content marketing practitioners in the house from leading brands & technology companies, the platform is all set this year to take Content Marketing discussion to its next level.
According to RP Singh, Conference Producer & Chairperson, “We are thrilled to have a great set of speakers this year too and I am grateful to all the experts for taking out time from their busy schedules to help create & spread the ecosystem of content marketing in India. With a joint effort like this, I have no doubts that the discipline is only set to grow from here in this part of the world”
He informs further that for this year, CMS Asia has started getting registrations quite well in advance as compared to previous editions, which signifies the importance, & expectations people have from this event.
CMS Asia as an event caters to Marketing professionals, PR professionals, Content Creators, Agency Partners & Technology companies in this space.
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Paramount set to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery in $81 billion deal
Shareholders back merger, combined entity could reshape streaming and studios.
MUMBAI: Lights, camera… consolidation, Hollywood’s latest blockbuster might be happening off-screen. Shareholders of Warner Bros. Discovery have voted in favour of selling the company to Paramount in a deal valued at $81 billion rising to nearly $111 billion including debt setting the stage for one of the biggest shake-ups in modern media. The proposed merger, still subject to regulatory approvals, would bring together a vast portfolio spanning HBO Max, CNN, and franchises such as Harry Potter under the same umbrella as Paramount’s own heavyweights, including Top Gun and CBS.
At the heart of the deal is streaming scale. Executives have indicated plans to combine HBO Max and Paramount+ into a single platform, potentially creating a stronger challenger to giants like Netflix and Amazon’s Prime Video. Current market data suggests HBO Max holds around 12 per cent of US on-demand subscriptions, compared to Paramount+’s 3 per cent, together still trailing Netflix’s 19 per cent and Disney’s combined 27 per cent via Disney+ and Hulu.
Paramount CEO David Ellison has signalled that while platforms may merge, HBO’s creative identity will remain intact, stating the brand should “stay HBO” even within a broader ecosystem.
Beyond streaming, the deal would redraw the map for film production. Combining two of Hollywood’s oldest studios Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros., the new entity aims to scale output to over 30 films annually, while maintaining a 45-day theatrical window. Warner Bros. currently commands around 21 per cent of the US box office, compared to Paramount’s 6 per cent, underscoring the strategic weight of the acquisition.
But scale comes with scrutiny. Critics warn that fewer players could mean reduced consumer choice, rising subscription costs, and potential job cuts as the combined company looks to streamline overlapping operations while managing billions in debt.
The news business, too, faces a reset. CNN would join forces at least structurally with Paramount-owned CBS, raising questions about editorial independence and positioning. The merger has already drawn political attention in the United States, particularly given perceived ties between the Ellison family and Donald Trump, though the company maintains that newsroom autonomy will be preserved.
If approved, the deal would mark another milestone in Hollywood’s consolidation wave shrinking the industry’s traditional “big six” studios to a “big four”, with Paramount joining Disney, Universal, and Sony at the top table.
In an industry built on storytelling, this merger may well become its most consequential plot twist yet.
