Applications
Digital media to play a key role in building sports brands in India
MUMBAI: While the digital media is growing in India, sports organisations and companies need to use it to make sports and their brands bigger as youth Indians are hooked on to it, according to speakers at the Indian International Sports Summit (IISS).
If sports organisations do not leverage digital media, then sports will have skipped a generation and will not be big in the future. United Breweries deputy president Shekhar Ramamurthy stressed on the fact that sports brands need to think ahead when it comes to using digital media. “The challenge for brands including sporting ones is that they are traditional. They have to find a way though to connect sporting passions with kids through the digital medium to stay relevant. Using the digital medium means going beyond just providing information,” he said.
Spotrfive Group director Hass Aminian and United Breweries deputy president Shekhar Ramamurthy. The topic was ‘Building brands and repackaging sports for new media formats’.
BBH India managing partner Partha Sinha noted that the digital medium allowed for sporting content to go beyond just the live feed. For instance Shane Warne’s ball of the century to Mike Gatting has got 10 million views online. There is an opportunity for brands to leverage this which is what Nike did with Joga Bonita. “The digital media offers brands more sports content to play with. Abroad BBH works with Lebron James and Sprite. One of the aims is to make optimum use of the digital medium. The advantage is that it offers the chance to create affinity groups,” he said.
Zee Sports CEO Atul Pande said Zee Sports is not sure about the monestisation of the digital medium. The fact is that people would rather watch mates on their LCD TV sets than on their mobile phones given a choice. The broadcaster does not know when digitisation will start making money.
Hungama CEO Neeraj Roy who delivered a keynote said that online video consumption is growing 60 fold and sports is a genre that would benefit. In this regard, a start has been made with the IPL deal with Google.
Sport applications online are growing in places like itunes. The mobile Internet will lead to multiple patterns of content consumption which will benefit sports. 3G could prove to be a tipping point. “Virtual goods buying online could prove to be a solid revenue stream for sports brands like the IPL,” said Roy.
There are video capable devices in the market and more will be introduced over the next couple of years, he added.
Applications
Inshorts Group chief Deepit Purkayastha joins IAB video council for Southeast Asia and India
The co-founder and chief executive of the short-form content platform has been inducted into the IAB SEA+India Video Council, giving India a stronger voice in shaping digital video frameworks
NOIDA: India has long been the world’s most chaotic, multilingual and mobile-first digital market. Now, one of its most prominent short-video executives is getting a seat at the table where the rules are written.
Deepit Purkayastha, co-founder and chief executive of Inshorts Group, has been selected as a member of the IAB SEA+India Video Council for 2026. Run by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, the council brings together senior leaders from Southeast Asia and India to shape standards, best practices and measurement frameworks for the fast-evolving video and digital advertising ecosystem.
The timing is pointed. According to the IAMAI-Kantar Internet in India Report 2025, over 588 million Indians are now consuming short-video content, with growth increasingly driven by rural and non-metro audiences. India’s active internet user base has crossed 950 million, with 57 per cent of users now coming from rural markets. Yet the frameworks that govern how video consumption is measured and monetised were largely designed for single-language, Western markets and have struggled to keep pace with the scale, diversity and complexity of India’s digital landscape.
Purkayastha is no stranger to these debates. He already serves on the AI Council at Marketing and Media Alliance India and as co-chair of the Digital Entertainment Committee at the Internet and Mobile Association of India. His induction into the IAB SEA+India Video Council extends that influence into the global video standards arena.
Inshorts Group sits squarely at the intersection of these forces. Its flagship product, Inshorts, India’s highest-rated short news app, reaches 12 million active users with 60-word news summaries. Its sister platform, Public App, reaches 80 million monthly active users across more than 700 districts and 12 languages, serving communities that most global platforms barely register.
Purkayastha said the opportunity was about building something more representative. “India today sits at the centre of the global video ecosystem, but the frameworks that define how value is created and measured have not always kept pace with the realities of our market,” he said. “Being part of the IAB SEA+India Video Council is an opportunity to contribute to a more representative and future-ready approach, one that accounts for diversity in language, context, and user intent.”
As a council member, Purkayastha will contribute to shaping regional standards across video advertising, measurement and platform governance, with a focus on frameworks that are native to India’s multilingual, mobile-first ecosystem rather than imported from global benchmarks designed elsewhere.
For years, India has been content to play by rules written for other markets. Purkayastha’s induction is a signal that it is done waiting to be consulted and ready to start writing them.
