MAM
Top Publishers adopt Taboola’s New Header Bidding Solution
Mumbai: Taboola has announced Taboola Header Bidding—a new capability that expands on the native bidding service that was originally launched in April 2022.
Publishers using Taboola Header Bidding generate incremental revenue from existing display ad inventory, and to date, top publishers like McClatchy, Ströer, iMedia, and many others are already live.
With Taboola Header Bidding, advertisers can now use Taboola’s advanced AI and unique first-party data to seamlessly connect with 500 million daily active users across IAB-standard display placements on its large publisher network. This gives advertisers working with Taboola even more visibility in prominent locations across trusted publishers in verticals like local news, sports, entertainment, finance, and more.
Publishers benefit from Taboola Header Bidding by driving significantly more monetisation with their existing display ad units. Using this product, Taboola’s publishers can tap into unique native advertising demand by working with 15,000 direct advertisers, immense first-party data, and AI. This helps publishers increase auction density across display ad inventory, resulting in a stronger and healthier display marketplace.
Speaking about this new feature, Taboola founder and CEO Adam Singolda said, “I’m excited to expand our partnership with 15,000 of our advertisers, providing them a broader opportunity to reach their target audiences and driving lower acquisition costs.”
Singolda added, “It is critical to help drive strong performance for advertisers and businesses all around the world, especially during times when social networks and privacy are in play. The feedback we’ve gotten working with some of our top publishers has been incredible. We’re not only able to provide value by generating incremental revenue from existing display placements but also by making the display marketplace healthier. We have a unique proposition given our massive first-party dataset, our direct advertisers, and AI—and I’m excited to make this available to 9,000 of our publishers in years to come.”
McClatchy chief revenue officer Tony Berg, who looks forward to the added benefits that this collaboration offers advertisers, said, “Taboola continues to be a strategic partner for us. Working with them on their header bidding technology strengthens our relationship even further. Their expertise in AI, coupled with their strong advertiser relationships, will create increased revenue opportunities.”
“Taboola has been a longtime partner of ours and has shown a commitment to collaborating on products that drive our business forward. We’ve integrated their products holistically because of their strength in making our properties more appealing to both advertisers and readers. More relevancy for ads on our site means a better experience for readers, while also giving advertisers the chance to tap into millions of very engaged and savvy readers. We are pleased to be the first sales house in DACH using this innovation within our Header Bidding solution powered by Yieldlove,” said Yieldlove senior vice president of product management programmatic & sata at Ströer and managing director Abdelkader Barjiji.
Ströer is the first sales house in the DACH region to use Taboola’s Header Bidding capabilities and, in doing so, continues its use of a variety of Taboola offerings. Most recently, the companies announced an extended partnership through 2028.
iMedia Digital Services president Matt Leardini commented, “Taboola has been our trusted, longtime partner, and their new header bidding product is very exciting to us.”
“Over our long partnership, their technology has given us a clear competitive advantage. With Taboola header bidding, we’ve got incredible new potential to grow our business together,” Leardini added.
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.
