The first day of SATCAB Symposium 2026 literally rocked and rolled to a grand opening in New Delhi and opened with a focus on the evolving dynamics of India’s media and entertainment sector, underlining the need for broadcasters, distributors and digital platforms to adapt to rapid technological and consumption shifts.

Yesterday’s proceedings set the tone for discussions around convergence, monetisation challenges and emerging distribution technologies shaping the industry at the two-day event.

Dr. Deepali Sharma, Advisor, broadcast and cable at TRAI, highlighted the role of the regulator and why it is important to have a level playing field for all the stakeholders in the M&E sector after a welcome address by Dr. A.K. Rastogi, President of All India Aavishkar Dish Antenna Sangh and the patriarch of the Aavishkar group that dwelt on giving an overview of India’s vibrant but complex media landscape.

The first panel discussion, titled ‘The Evolving Edge: Maximizing Broadcasters, DPOs and LCO Potential in the current media landscape’, examined the continuing relevance of distribution platform operators (DPOs) amid the rise of OTT and short-form content.

The session saw participation from Anil Malhotra of ZEEL, Yatin Gupta of GTPL, Akshat Singhal of Dangal Play, Aamir Mulani of PlayboxTV, Hemlata Sharma of NXT Media Group and Padmakumar of KCCL. The speakers highlighted that though the M&E sector has made vast progress, challenges still persist and the play field remains uneven.

The second session, ‘Reinventing News: Sustainable Models for Broadcast and Digital’, focused on the structural challenges facing the news business, including over-reliance on advertising and revenue diversion to big tech platforms.

Moderated by Avinash Pandey of IBDF, speakers included Rabindra Narayan of GTC Network, Sushant S Mohan of News 24, Dilip Singh of Live Times, Upendrra Rai of Bharat Express and Ashish Sehgal of Times Network and Times Media & Entertainment.

The animated discussion saw speakers talk about changing viewing habits and the consumer trend towards soft stories disseminated via social media. But the speakers agreed that if the content is compelling, shorn of sensationalism, there will be viewers for news, though one of the speakers did admit that AI is making a huge impact in how news is collated, curated and then disseminated.

The third session, ‘Measuring the Various Screens : How Robust & Reliable?’, addressed the complexities of cross-platform audience measurement in a fragmented media ecosystem.

Ajay Singh of Hathway moderated the discussion, with panelists including Pankaj Krishna of Chrome DM, L.V. Krishnan of TAM Media, Rajiv Dubey of Dabur India, Vikram Sakhuja of Madison Media & OOH and Vivek Jaiswal of Comscore.

 

The bottomline of the session: in an age when technology is changing faster than ever envisaged, multi-screen measurement is a must as CTV and digital have changed the paradigm of viewing and advertising.

On Day 2, the symposium will begin with a keynote address by Gaurav Dwivedi, CEO of Prasar Bharati, followed by sessions on emerging technologies and revenue streams.

The session ‘Direct to Mobile Broadcasting (D2M): A win-win for Broadcasters, Telcos and Consumers’ will explore the potential of delivering content directly to mobile devices, featuring speakers like Pankaj Krishna of Chrome Data Analytics, Prashant M Maru of Tejas Networks, C.K. Jain, former DDG at Prasar Bharati, Hocine Belhous of Synamedia and Vivek Malhotra of the India Today Group. It will be  moderated by Sunil of the Broadcast Engineering Society.

The second day will also feature a fireside chat titled ‘Then, Now, Next: A Journalist’s Journey Through Credibility, Change, and the Future of News’ with Sudhir Chaudhary. He’d be in conversation with Amitabh Srivastava of iMedia International.

A session on ‘Evolving Economy of Live Events & Sports’ will see Hemlata Sharma of NXT Media Group moderating discussions among Shakunt Malhotra of Appear and Sushant S Mohan of News24.

Overall, the two-day SATCAB Symposium 2026 seeks to capture key shifts in India’s M&E sector, including platform convergence, the rise of digital distribution, measurement challenges, evolving news business models and the growing importance of live events and emerging technologies such as direct-to-mobile broadcasting.