MAM
TV ad rates sky-rocket ahead of India, Pakistan CT 2017 final
NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: “India vs Pakistan Final… !! All TV execs around the world are now cracking a nice bottle open to celebrate,” tweeted former England captain Michael Vaughan after Thursday’s victory of India over Bangladesh in Champions Trophy 2017 semi-final. He wasn’t off the mark as television advertising rates on Star Sports for June 18 cricket final between India and Pakistan are almost 10 times the normal price, according to a media report.
A 30-second spot during the final to be broadcast by Star Sports is expected to cost nearly Rs. 10 million ($155,267), far higher than the Rs. 1 million that advertisers pay on average for most Indian shows, a Reuters report said basing its observations on inputs from people involved in buying ads.
An earlier India-Pakistan clash on a cricket field was ranked amongst the six most-watched sporting events with billions of fans watching the game on TV, OTT platforms and in the stadium.
Pakistan, the lowest-ranked team at the Champions Trophy 2017 tournament, upset host and favourites England to set up a final clash with defending champions India, feeding frenzy for a game that commands a fanatical following in the Indian sub-continent and among its diaspora spread across the globe.
Most of the TV spots for the final, to be played in London, were pre-booked with firms such as Nissan Motor, Intel Corp, Emirates, Chinese mobile maker Oppo and Indian tyre-maker MRF signed up as commercial partners for the tournament, the Reuters report stated. Quoting broadcast industry people familiar with such developments, the report added fewer than 10 per cent of the slots are left for the final.
Companies still wanting to air their ads will be paying a higher rate than those who pre-booked, said the person, who did not want to be named, citing business confidentiality, according to the wire agency report.
Before the Champions Trophy, the last time India and Pakistan played a one-day international was during the 2015 World Cup. That game, won by India, was one of the top-six most viewed sporting events, along with the soccer World Cup final and Usain Bolt’s 100-metre sprint at the 2012 Olympic Games, the sports broadcasting industry source told Reuters.
India and Pakistan have already met during the tournament’s group stage, with India winning easily. More than 200 million people watched that game, according to Indian media, citing BARC India. For Sunday’s final, viewership is expected to be 30-40 percent higher.
However, not everybody is as optimistic on TV advertising rates sky-rocketing just because it’s an India-Pakistan match.
Contacted by Indiantelevision.com, Dentsu Aegis Network South Asia chairman and CEO Ashish Bhasin admitted that the final will have a high viewership, but wasn’t sure whether TV ad rates would increase. “I don’t think (the match) will make any significant impact (on ad rates) because anybody who has put advertising revenue would have already put it up,” he explained, adding most of the advertising budget for tournaments like these would have already been spent.
Echoing somewhat similar sentiments Madison Media Omega COO Dinesh Rathore said ad rates admittedly will be higher but “people would have bought it in advance.”
Pointing out that he wasn’t sure if Star had kept in reserve some ad inventory to be sold at a premium later, Rathore, however, explained that Sony always kept some inventory (about 100 seconds) in reserve for IPL matches to be sold later at a higher price. Still, he maintained that if Star has some reserved inventory, the premium could be three to four times higher than the normal rates.
It is also not clear whether pubcaster Doordarshan that also will air the final is equipped to cash in on the situation by doing some aggressive marketing over the weekend.
An analysis of BARC data done by Indiantelevision.com highlighted that Champions Trophy 2017 helped Star Sports 1, Star Sports Hindi and Doordarshan National to enter the list of Top 10 channels across all genres (all-India; rural and urban) in Week 23 of 2017 (Saturday, 3 June 2017 to Friday, 9 June 2017). CT 2017 broadcast rights holder Star shares a clean feed of the matches with pubcaster DD under government-mandated regulations.
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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.
