India’s media giants are entering a new phase of growth, moving beyond the old playbook of buying reach through sports rights, blockbuster films and mass-market programming. Their next bets are on artificial intelligence (AI), data, homegrown intellectual property (IP), regional-language content and—most importantly—turning audience attention into deeper engagement and new revenue streams.
The shift reflects a more fragmented media market where simply adding viewers is no longer enough. At Ficci Frames in Mumbai on Tuesday, senior executives from JioStar, Zee, Sony, Amazon Prime Video and NDTV outlined strategies that increasingly treat content, technology and consumer behaviour as one business rather than separate television, digital and streaming plays.
“Five years ago, a lot of the capital would go towards reaching the maximum number of people possible,” said Kevin Vaz, CEO, Entertainment, JioStar. “Today, the capital is not going only into content or distribution. A large part is going into making content more meaningful, personalised and discoverable.”
Punit Goenka, CEO of Zee Entertainment, described the change as a move towards an “attention economy”. The industry, he said, is moving beyond the television-versus-digital debate to a model where “we need to capture attention”.
That is also changing where companies put their money. “Five years ago, what was the industry spending on? Sports rights and the biggest movies,” Gaurav Banerjee, MD & CEO, Sony Entertainment Pictures Networks India, said. “Where are we moving towards? Building and developing IP.”
For JioStar, the opportunity extends beyond the two traditional pillars of advertising and subscriptions. Vaz sees a shift from monetising attention to “monetising intent”—using highly engaged audiences to create new commerce and gamification businesses.
“Consumers don’t come to the platform only because of viewership. They want to interact, engage, share and, lastly, transact,” he said.
The executives also see global markets as a larger opportunity for Indian content. Banerjee said changing global viewing habits have created an opening for Indian stories.
“Why should this not be the time for Indian storytelling?” Banerjee said. “The market already exists for an incredible international opportunity. The good stories have to follow.”
Goenka said overseas markets should no longer be treated merely as incremental revenue. “We have to stop looking at international as an incremental revenue stream,” he said. “We have to look at it as a place where we can actually take our content to monetise it—not just for the Indian diaspora.”
The definition of a hit is evolving, too. Gaurav Gandhi, vice-president, Asia-Pacific, Australia and New Zealand, Amazon Prime Video, said reach and completion remain important, but cultural impact and franchise potential increasingly matter.
Banerjee, however, stressed that technology has not displaced the creative core. “The fundamental definition actually hasn’t changed at all,” he said, arguing that compelling storytelling remains the starting point.
Regional-language markets are another major growth frontier. Vaz pointed to cricket commentary expanding from Hindi and English to nearly 20 languages, while Goenka argued that calling them “regional” understates their importance. “They actually are the cultural part of our country,” he said.
For younger audiences, even the format is changing. Rahul Kanwal, CEO and Editor-in-Chief, NDTV, said the network is experimenting with micro-drama formats to present news to Gen Z “in a language that they understand”.
The emerging media playbook, therefore, is less about simply acquiring the next million viewers and more about owning the relationship that follows—what they watch, how they engage, what they share and, increasingly, what they are willing to buy.