MAM
WhatsApp’s 200m users catalysed ASCI’s digital initiative
MUMBAI: The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) successfully completed a year of its digital initiative – Snap and WhatsApp (+91 77100 12345).
In perfect tandem with World Consumer Rights Day themed “Consumer Rights in Digital Age” being celebrated today, ASCI’s WhatsApp number provides an efficient first touch point for consumers to register their complaints with great ease and completely free of cost.
Empowering consumers to register their grievances against objectionable advertisements through an easy access and effective medium, the WhatsApp platform registers 200 Million monthly active users in India. With more and more consumers accessing WhatsApp, ASCI’s WhatsApp number has radically increased its outreach. In one year since launch the WhatsApp number contributes to approximately 15 per cent of the total number of advertisements complained against by consumers.
ASCI chairman Srinivasan K Swamy said, “By ensuring that the advertisements are truthful, decent, non-offensive, legal and fair in competition, ASCI is ensuring the protection of the interests of consumers. ASCI has provided Indian consumers a very powerful tool through its WhatsApp number (77100 12345) to take action against objectionable advertisements and thereby protecting consumer rights in this digital age. We are delighted to see that our proactive step of launching this number a year ago has been a success with more and more consumers reaching ASCI using this platform.”
Interestingly, by embracing technology to connect with the consumers, ASCI has expanded its reach to smaller towns and cities in India and received encouraging participation from non-metro cities in registering the complaints on the WhatsApp number. The sectors that received complaints on WhatsApp include FMCG, Healthcare, Telecom, E-commerce, Travel, Durables, Automotive, Food and Beverages and Education which have been seen across medium not restricted to only TV or print but also Website, Radio, SMS, Emailers, Promotional Materials, Product Packaging, Hoardings, etc.
This WhatsApp initiative is part of a more comprehensive system set up by ASCI to get consumers to register complaints on what they consider are offensive. Initially it set up a web-based complaint registration system and later it launched a free mobile app “ASCIonline” in July 2015, which was followed, by the launch of WhatsApp number (7710012345) in March 2016. With these measures, ASCI is able to effectively engage with thousands of consumers who raise objections against misleading or offensive advertisements.
ASCI also has a tie up with Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) through which ASCI monitors nationally (National Advertising Monitoring Service – NAMS) print and TV media for offending advertisements wherein each of the 1600 new TV and 45000 print advertisements are reviewed to weed out potentially misleading advertisements. ASCI tracks 32 national Newspapers (all editions) that contributed to over 80 per cent of national newspaper readership, 50 magazines and 425 TV Channels across the country in 14 languages. NAMS also tracks whether non-compliant advertisements reappeared and results show that most of these advertisements are either withdrawn or modified.
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.
