Dish TV to aid content creators with better monetisation: Manoj Dobhal on Content India launch

New Delhi: Creator lifespan is gradually shrinking and long-term sustenance is slowly becoming a luxury enjoyed by legacy creators. In such a volatile economy for creators, Dish TV is working towards an ecosystem that may help creators sustain. 

In a conversation with BestMediaInfo.com, Manoj Dobhal, CEO and Executive Director, Dish TV, conveyed his plans to engage with up-and-coming creators to put up a variety of content for consumers. 

Multiple stakeholders under one roof

Dish TV, on Tuesday, launched Content India 2025 in collaboration with UK-based C21Media. The three-day summit, to be held on April 1-3, 2025, will pave the way for a full-fledged event titled Content India 2026. 

The platform aims to bring key stakeholders such as creators, producers, directors, influencers and media distributors under one roof, making it a networking and marketing hub. 

Leveraging the outreach that is expected to emerge from the event, Dobhal plans to engage with regional, national and international creators that participate in the event and create content that will be “exclusive to Dish TV.” 

Long-term engagement with creators

Throwing light on his plans, Dobhal said, “We would get an outreach to so many content creators, both local and international. With adequate access to them, which we do not have today,  we can then put up content for our consumers which will be completely different, and exclusive only to Dish TV.” 

Dish TV is steadily growing its OTT extension, Watcho. Touted as a “360 degree OTT platform,” Watcho is an aggregator that has multiple other OTT platforms such as Sony LIV, Zee5, and Disney+ Hotstar. In addition to this, Watcho also has its “exclusive” section, where the shows are produced by the OTT aggregator itself.

Content India Summit is being designed as a marketplace where the drivers of the creator economy can engage and foster new partnerships. These relationships will keep them going for one year before the summit hits the calendar again. The Content India summit will be held annually in the country. 

Sharing his thoughts on the long-term engagement of creators in India, Dobhal said, “Content India is a physical interaction base but it doesn’t die there. From engagements which emerge from the summit, we will build tools that will take these engagements further.” 

He added, “Once the association with creators has been established and once these creators find a place on our platform, we will keep under examination the content that they are delivering and the solutions that they need to proliferate their growth. We will help the creators get better models of monetisation. We will foster myriad engagements and partnerships for the creators through our platform.” 

Democratising content

Echoing the views of Dobhal, Sukhpreet Singh, Corporate Head, Marketing, Dish TV and Watcho, pointed at Dish TV and Watcho’s plans to build a community of creators. Content India is a part of that whole scheme of things, Singh said. 

“We are building a community of content creators, filmmakers, documentary makers, and people who make web series. We will encourage them to put out great content on our platform and monetise it. We will help them promote it and take it to the audience,” Singh added. 

Stressing on democratising, Singh elaborated, “So basically, the idea is that if you are a content creator, you decide how you want to monetise your content. Rather than us deciding, we want to give the freedom to creators to choose what kind of experience they want to give their audience.” 

As Singh explained, Watcho is planning on introducing various segments focused on different types of content. The creators can then decide where they want to allocate the content, be it long form, short form, movie, web series, etc. “It will be like a content creator having their own app,” Singh noted. 

Unlike what is expected from aggregators, Dish TV and Watcho will not acquire and curate content, rather they will give it to the people to drive the platform according to their own outlook. 

Dish TV, in collaboration with UK’s C21Media, launched Content India 2025. The summit will bring, only on an invite-basis system, 50 global stakeholders and 50 Indian industry leaders in the world of content to establish a discourse on merging the local with the global. The summit slated for April this year will determine the agenda for the larger event that is scheduled for 2026. 

Content India will follow the format of C21Media’s international events including Content America, Content Canada, Content London, Content LA, and Content Warsaw. 

During the conference held in New Delhi, David Jenkinson, C21Media’s editor-in-chief and managing director, said, “India’s entertainment industry holds immense potential to lead the global content landscape with its creativity and innovation. Partnering with Dish TV India for Content India allows us to bring together the best minds in the industry, fostering collaborations that drive meaningful growth and unlock new opportunities for content creators on an international scale.”