iWorld
Streaming to the top: Karan Bedi named OTT Leader of the Year
MUMBAI: When it comes to India’s streaming wars, Karan Bedi is clearly playing in the big league. The head of Amazon MX Player has been crowned ‘Leader of the Year OTT’ at the 12th IAA Leadership Awards, held on 7 August 2025 at Taj Lands End, Mumbai. Instituted in 2013 by the International Advertising Association India Chapter, the awards celebrate excellence in business, marketing, and corporate leadership. This year’s jury, chaired by Colgate-Palmolive India MD & CEO Prabha Narasimhan, recognised Bedi’s role in steering Amazon MX Player to the forefront of India’s digital entertainment.
Under his watch, the free streaming service has delivered a buffet of genres from cult thrillers like Aashram to emotionally charged dramas such as Mitti – Ek Nayi Pehchaan, high-octane action with Hunter S2 – Tootega Nahi Todega, and reality hits like Realme Hip Hop India Season 2. As per Ormax Media, 8 of India’s Top 50 digital shows in H1 2025 were from MX Player’s stable.
The platform also boasts MX Vdesi India’s largest localised international content library, featuring dubbed global shows, anime, and films. It’s a strategy that has kept the service on advertisers’ radars while winning over audiences nationwide.
“This recognition is for our entire team,” said Bedi. “Our mission is to deliver high-quality, free entertainment rooted in local stories, while enabling advertisers to reach audiences across India. Seeing our content resonate with millions is the most rewarding part of the journey.”
With audience loyalty, advertiser trust, and an expanding content portfolio, Bedi’s leadership shows that in OTT, it’s not just about playing the game, it’s about changing it.
e-commerce
Visa report tracks rise of India’s affluent, experience-led spending
Affluent base doubles to 130 lakh, travel 58 per cent of elite spends.
MUMBAI: In India’s new luxury playbook, it’s less about owning more and more about living better. A new whitepaper by Visa Consulting and Analytics (VCA) maps a decisive shift in India’s affluent economy, where spending is becoming more intentional, experience-led, and closely tied to personal identity rather than pure income growth.
Titled India’s Affluent Economy 2025–2026, the report draws on a Visa-commissioned Yougov study and VisaNet data across travel, dining, retail and lifestyle categories. The headline number is hard to miss: individuals earning over Rs 10 lakh annually have nearly doubled from 69 lakh to 130 lakh, significantly expanding the country’s discretionary spending base.
But it’s not just about scale, it’s about behaviour. As consumers move up the affluence ladder, discretionary categories are taking a larger share of credit card spends, positioning cards as key enablers of premium, lifestyle-driven consumption.
The geography of wealth is shifting too. Affluence is no longer confined to metros such as Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru, with cities like Ahmedabad, Surat, Jaipur and Lucknow increasingly mirroring metro consumption patterns.
The report highlights a clear pivot from ownership to access. More than 50 per cent of affluent consumers now use cards for elite memberships, while 7 in 10 are drawn to limited-edition drops and curated collections. Increasingly, luxury is defined by seamless access be it concierge-led travel or curated dining where time saved is as valuable as money spent.
Spending patterns reinforce this shift. Among the ultra-elite, travel accounts for 58 per cent of discretionary spends, far outpacing retail and luxury combined at 28 per cent. Cross-border spending penetration stands at 63 per cent, signalling a growing global outlook among India’s affluent.
Closer home, indulgence is becoming routine. Nearly 4 in 5 affluent consumers dine at premium establishments at least three times a year, while 1 in 4 visit luxury venues more than five times annually. Dining spends are also climbing, with Rs 20,000 emerging as a new entry-level benchmark per experience and Rs 50,000 marking premium territory.
Retail, meanwhile, is becoming more selective. Three in four affluent consumers make a high-end purchase at least once a quarter, while one in four shops premium every two weeks. Luxury retail intensity is also rising, with 2 in 5 consumers spending over Rs 5 lakh annually, and a smaller but significant segment exceeding Rs 10 lakh.
Technology and wellness are carving out new roles in this ecosystem. High-end gadgets now see average spends of Rs 60,000 or more per purchase, while ultra-elite consumers are eight times more likely to visit spas and show five times higher engagement with cosmetic stores than non-affluent groups.
The broader takeaway is structural. Affluent consumers are no longer buying products, they are buying ecosystems. Integrated experiences across travel, dining, wellness and payments are becoming central to how this segment lives and spends.
As India’s affluent base expands beyond metros and aligns more closely with global consumption patterns, the real opportunity lies not just in size, but in speed. For brands, the message is clear: relevance will be defined by how early and how seamlessly, they plug into this evolving lifestyle economy.
