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Stream and steady wins the race as OTTs chase hybrid money magic

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MUMBAI: If streaming once felt like a sprint in India, 2025 has turned it into a marathon, one where platforms keep changing tactics mid-stride. At the 9th edition of the Vidnet Summit, the panel on “Streaming in the Age of Hybrid Monetisation Models” offered a free-flowing, occasionally chaotic but deeply revealing look at how AVOD, SVOD, FAST, TVOD and Pay-Per-View now coexist in an industry hurtling towards hybrid futures.

Moderated by Keerat Grewal, head of business development (streaming, TV & brands), Ormax World, the panel brought together Ranjana Mangla (SVP, Ad revenue head, Sony Liv), Saurabh Srivastava (COO for digital media, Shemaroo Entertainment) and Pratap Jain (founder, Chana Jor). Between candid confessions, colourful metaphors and hard numbers, the speakers mapped the pressures and opportunities shaping India’s streaming economy.

Grewal opened with a statistic that set the stakes, “As of 2025, India has 625 million people consuming online streaming content, and 73 per cent watch free content.”
Free, clearly, is the national habit and free forces platforms to innovate.

Grewal noted that OTT models today cannot be built in isolation. Platforms constantly weigh where to place content premium tiers, YouTube, ad-supported feeds or subscription bundles. Premium users, she said, must feel their annual spend is “worth their time”, while AVOD and SVOD require very different content and pricing philosophies.

For Sony LIV’s Mangla, the answer lies in finding a platform’s core uniqueness.“Sports is tactical,” she said. “We’ve invested in tennis for a long time. We use sports very uniquely, and we make sure it stays profitable at all times.”

Sports, she emphasised, demands long-term investment, strategic placement and ruthless clarity on returns.

Mangla also spotlighted Connected TV (CTV), calling the last 18 months transformative. “CTV is now an unskippable part of every advertiser’s plan—traditional brands, new-age companies, retailers, everyone.” Inventory remains limited, she noted, but demand has skyrocketed, pushing OTT players to build more high-quality, large-screen experiences.

Shemaroo’s Srivastava delivered one of the session’s sharpest insights, “This is the year when video advertising on digital will surpass video advertising on television.”
The shift, he said, is driven by digital’s vast inventory and the ability to test, learn and refine campaigns in real time, something TV cannot match.

Advertisers, Mangla added, now scrutinise digital data with unprecedented detail. “There is a lot of inventory available for advertisers to understand what works and what does not, and they are using it.” But she warned against complacency, “Every 18 months, you have to revisit your strategy. The world changes too fast.”

The conversation pivoted to premium content, with Mangla noting that not every show must appeal to hundreds of advertisers. “If a show appeals to 100 advertisers with clarity, that is enough. You will eventually convert only about 15 per cent anyway.” High-quality content, contextual placements and associative value, participants agreed, remain the backbone of sustainable monetisation.

Chana Jor’s Pratap Jain distilled his philosophy into a single line, “Content should reach every corner of the world, that is the perfect way of making money. Reach is the key.” He argued that user-generated platforms and big-tech ecosystems have natural advantages, pushing traditional broadcasters-turned-OTTs to stay nimble, experimental and audience-obsessed.

Pay-Per-View (PPV), meanwhile, emerged as a quiet but intriguing model. With India’s appetite for special events from sports to concerts to reality finales PPV may yet evolve into a meaningful premium layer for high-value content.

Despite the colourful tangents touching on prasad, prayers, sugar cane and even yoga tablets, the underlying consensus was unmistakable: hybrid monetisation is not a trend but a necessity.
AVOD brings reach, SVOD brings loyalty, FAST brings frequency, TVOD brings spikes, PPV brings exclusivity and CTV brings premium advertisers. Success lies in balancing them all without losing sight of content quality.

India’s streaming landscape, with 625 million users, is vast, diverse and deeply cost-conscious. With 73 per cent choosing free content, platforms have no option but to experiment aggressively with hybrid strategies, premium positioning and context-rich advertising.

As the panel wrapped, one message echoed through the hall: this decade belongs to platforms that evolve quickly, choose clarity over chaos, and understand that in India’s streaming race, stream and steady wins it.

 

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Netflix celebrates a decade in India with Shah Rukh Khan-narrated tribute film

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MUMBAI: Netflix is celebrating ten years in India with a slick anniversary film voiced by Shah Rukh Khan, a nostalgic sprint through a decade that rewired how the country watches stories. The campaign doubles as both tribute and reminder: streaming did not just enter Indian homes, it quietly rearranged them.

Roll back to 2016 and television still dictated schedules. Viewers waited weeks, sometimes months, for favourite films to appear on prime time. Family-friendly filters narrowed options further, and piracy often filled the gaps. Then Netflix arrived, softly but decisively, carrying a catalogue of international titles rarely seen in Indian theatres and placing them a click away. Old blockbusters and new releases suddenly coexisted on the same digital shelf.

The platform’s real inflection point came in 2018 with Sacred Games, a breakout series that refused to dilute India’s grit for global comfort. Audiences embraced its unvarnished tone, signalling readiness for stories that did not need box-office validation or censorship compromises. What followed was a steady procession of relatable narratives. Competitive-exam anxiety fuelled Kota Factory. College relationships unfolded in Mismatched. Everyday pressures, not grand spectacle, proved bankable.

Language barriers thinned as foreign series arrived with Hindi, Tamil and Telugu dubbing, expanding viewership beyond urban English-speaking pockets. Marketing mirrored the shift. For global releases such as Squid Game, Netflix leaned on regional creators and influencers to localise buzz and make international content feel native.

The library widened beyond fiction. Documentaries stepped out of festival circuits into living rooms. Stand-up comedians found scale. Established filmmakers, including Sanjay Leela Bhansali with Heeramandi, embraced the platform’s long-form canvas. Subscriber numbers swelled to 12.37 million in India, according to Demandsage, and behaviour followed suit. Late-night binges became routine. Friday release rituals loosened. Watch parties turned solitary screens into social events.

Economics demanded adjustment. Early subscription pricing carried a premium aura that deterred many households. Over time, Netflix recalibrated plans to align with Indian spending sensibilities, conceding that accessibility is as critical as content. To extend momentum around marquee titles, the platform also experimented with split-season releases, stretching anticipation and watch time.

The anniversary film, narrated by Shah Rukh Khan, captures the linguistic shift that mirrors the cultural one: from “Netflix pe kya dekha?” to “Netflix pe kya dekhein?” The question moved from recounting the past to planning the next binge. In ten years, Netflix morphed from foreign entrant to familiar fixture, exporting Indian stories abroad while importing global ones home. The remote no longer waits; it chooses, clicks and moves on. In the streaming age, patience is out, playlists are in, and the next episode is always one tap away.

 

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Tulasi Mohan Padavala elevated to Associate Director at Blinkit

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Gurugram: Blinkit has elevated Tulasi Mohan Padavala to associate director, capping a three-year climb inside the quick-commerce firm and signalling confidence in an executive steeped in ecommerce, category management and on-ground sales execution.

Padavala shared the update publicly, saying he was “happy to share” the promotion, a succinct announcement that nevertheless marks a notable step up within one of India’s fastest-moving delivery platforms. The new role follows nearly three years at Blinkit, where he most recently served as senior category manager from February 2023 to January 2026, focusing on strategic sourcing and assortment planning.

The promotion places Padavala in Blinkit’s mid-to-senior leadership tier at a time when the company continues to expand its rapid-delivery footprint and sharpen category economics. His brief tenure as associate director began in January 2026, with responsibilities expected to span category growth, supplier strategy and cross-functional execution.

Before Blinkit, Padavala spent a short but intensive stint as global ecommerce manager at Wholsum Foods, the parent of Slurrp Farm and Millé, between November 2022 and February 2023. There he worked on digital marketplace expansion and online retail operations, adding a direct-to-consumer and international ecommerce layer to his résumé.

A longer stretch at Amazon shaped much of his cross-border commerce experience. As business development manager for Amazon’s India Global Selling programme from February 2021 to October 2022, Padavala helped Indian D2C brands enter the North American market. His remit ranged from seller recruitment and category revenue management to coordination with industry bodies, regulators and logistics partners. Key outcomes included launching more than 50 D2C consumable brands in the United States, driving a cumulative gross merchandise sales figure of $1m in FY21-22, tripling sales for participating brands during Prime Day through marketing and visibility levers, growing the monthly recurring revenue of more than 10 newly launched sellers from zero to an average $20,000 each, and negotiating ecommerce partnerships that reduced initial launch costs by 20 per cent.

Padavala’s earlier career was forged in the field rather than the dashboard. At Coffee Day Group, he spent close to five years across multiple sales leadership roles. As sales manager in the Greater Delhi Area from July 2019 to January 2021, he led vending-machine and consumables sales for small and medium enterprises with a team of more than 15 assistant and territory sales managers, managed over 2,000 clients, drove upselling and cross-selling, maintained channel partnerships and ensured timely collections. Prior to that, he served as area sales manager in Delhi between May 2018 and June 2019, handling south and east Delhi markets, and earlier in Hyderabad from April 2016 to May 2018, where he led Andhra Pradesh sales for the vending division, supervised service and logistics functions and managed a base of more than 600 machines with a four-member team.

His professional arc began with internships that combined analytics and process improvement. At Boehringer Ingelheim in 2015, Padavala analysed the impact of brand extension on the drug Pradaxa, identified key performance indicators through market research and assessed sales forecasts, recommendations that drew positive responses in pilot studies. Earlier, at Genpact in 2014, he automated manual sales-order backlog reporting using VBA and Excel, increasing efficiency by 800 per cent, and worked on benchmarking metrics within supply-chain planning processes.

From automating spreadsheets to scaling cross-border ecommerce and now steering quick-commerce categories, Padavala’s trajectory tracks the evolution of India’s retail economy itself. Blinkit’s bet is clear: blend data, discipline and delivery speed. The promotion formalises what his career already suggests. In the race for instant commerce, experience that moves from warehouse floors to global dashboards is no longer optional. It is the engine.

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e-commerce

Bharatpe plays a super over as Rohit Sharma fronts T20 push

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MUMBAI: When the stakes rise and seconds matter, even payments need a match-winning finish. That’s the cue for Bharatpe, which has rolled out Super Over, a nationwide campaign led by Indian cricket captain Rohit Sharma, timed neatly ahead of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.

The campaign draws a straight line between the pulse of cricket and the pace of everyday digital payments. A new brand film taps into India’s emotional bond with the game, while positioning UPI as the quiet hero that keeps daily transactions ticking along at match speed.

As part of Super Over, users making payments via Bharatpe UPI can bag daily rewards ranging from match tickets and signed merchandise to a chance to watch a T20 World Cup fixture alongside Rohit Sharma himself. Both consumers and merchants are also assured Zillion Coins on every eligible transaction, adding a little extra sparkle to routine payments.

Behind the scenes, Bharatpe is also batting for safety. The platform is backed by Bharatpe Shield, a fraud-protection layer designed to offer enhanced security, comprehensive coverage and dedicated support aimed at helping users transact with greater confidence as digital payments scale up.

Announcing the campaign, Bharatpe head of marketing Shilpi Kapoor said Super Over mirrors the aspirations of everyday Indians, combining speed, security and instant rewards to make UPI transactions feel both reliable and rewarding.

The campaign will play out across digital platforms, social media and on-ground activations nationwide, staying live through the T20 World Cup season proof that in cricket, as in payments, timing is everything.

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