FICCI FRAMES at 25 puts regulation, platforms, AI, live sports economics at the centre

New Delhi: FICCI FRAMES 2025 (October 7–8, Fairmont Mumbai) will open with a policy-forward inaugural featuring FICCI President Harsha Vardhan Agarwal, JioStar’s Kevin Vaz, Information & Broadcasting Secretary Sanjay Jaju, MoS L. Murugan and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, with closing remarks by FICCI Senior Vice-President Anant Goenka. 

The staging signals two days designed for decision-makers across news, TV and streaming, advertising, distribution and technology.

A string of heavyweight keynotes will map operating priorities: India Today Group’s Aroon Purie on the print and news business; TRAI Chairman Anil Kumar Lahoti on “collaborative growth of the broadcasting sector”; Meta’s Sandhya Devanathan on platform scale and access; and Madison World’s Sam Balsara on why advertising remains “too big to disappear.”

The money conversation will come early. “Revenue Rush, Audience Loyalty” will examine how supply- and demand-side shifts are reshaping monetisation. Vanita Kohli-Khandekar will moderate a panel that includes Kamal Gianchandani, CEO of PVR INOX & President of the Multiplex Association of India; Madison’s Vikram Sakhuja; Saregama MD Vikram Mehra; JioStar’s revenue lead Mahesh Shetty; and Google India’s Sweta Jhunjhunwala.

An “AI-Powered Media Revolution” session will convene Autodesk’s Kamolika Gupta Peres, Meta’s Shweta Bajpai, JioStar CPO Bharath Ram and Google India’s Siddharth Shekhar to detail how AI will drive hyper-personalisation, interactive storytelling and new production workflows.

Distribution pipes will share the spotlight. “The Connectivity Catalyst” will pair a keynote from Prasar Bharati CEO Gaurav Dwivedi with a panel featuring Shashi Shekhar Vempati, Hughes’ Premal Gandhi, Jio’s Sanjay Thakur, Nelco’s Brajendra Bhuwan Urmalia and MAIT’s Suhail Zaidi, connecting network economics to content growth.

On state-led ecosystem building, a Maharashtra AVGC-XR Policy 2025 roundtable, backed by a Rs 3,268-crore plan with a 2050 horizon, will be chaired by Industries Secretary Anbalagan P., with a policy presentation by Development Commissioner Deependra Singh Kushwah. Participants will include Munjal B. Shroff (Graphiti), Rajiv Chilaka (Green Gold), Namit Malhotra (DNEG), Akshat Rathee (Nodwin), Keitan Yadav (Redchillies.vfx), Manvendra Shukul (Lakshya Digital) and others.

Regulatory clarity will be a recurring through-line. “Regulating the Orange Economy” will feature a keynote by Additional Secretary (I&B) Prabhat and a special address by SPNI MD & CEO Gaurav Banerjee, moderated by Vivan Sharan (Koan Advisory) with IBDF’s Avinash Pandey, JioStar’s Krishnan Kutty, Zee’s Anil Malhotra and GTPL’s Yatin Gupta, framing the case for light-touch rules that balance consumer protection with growth.

Platform power shifts will be unpacked in “Platform Shifts & Uncharted Story-Scapes,” keynoted by Siddharth Roy Kapur and moderated by Warner Bros. Discovery’s Arjun Nohwar. 

Speakers will include Banijay Asia’s Deepak Dhar, Netflix’s Tanya Bami, Prime Video’s Shilangi Mukherji, Pocket Aces’ Aditi Shrivastava and YouTube India’s Gunjan Soni, charting discovery, commissioning and multi-format distribution playbooks.

Live programming economics will also get a dedicated arc. Day 2 will open with “Sports 2.0: The India Playbook” featuring Dinesh Karthik in conversation with JioStar Sports CEO Ishan Chatterjee, followed by “Cricketainment & Beyond,” with a keynote by Venky Mysore and a panel spanning Wizcraft’s Sabbas Joseph, District by Eternal’s Kunal Khambati, Saregama’s Siddharth Kumar, JioStar’s Siddharth Sharma and Delhi Tourism’s Niharika Rai, moderated by Mayanti Langer.

The creator-tech lens will round out the agenda. A roundtable on “AI & the Creator Economy – Adapting to the New Normal” will explore how AI can unlock scalable content models while pushing inclusive innovation and accessibility, placing responsibility alongside speed and scale.

Complementing the business track, fireside conversations will add platform-side perspective: Applause Entertainment’s Sameer Nair on scaling stories and Netflix India’s Monika Shergill on “Beyond the Stream” at the brand’s 10-year mark in India, both oriented to strategy, commissioning and talent pipelines relevant to advertisers and partners.

Across two days, the through-line will be unmistakable: fewer vanity showcases, more operating-system conversations, policy signals, platform partnerships, AI readiness, connectivity, measurement and live-event monetisation. 

For advertisers, broadcasters, streamers and publishers, FRAMES’ silver-jubilee edition will read like a pragmatic checklist for the next growth cycle.