India’s entertainment landscape is at a clear inflection point. The latest Ficci and EY report highlights a 44 percent surge in the organised live events segment, making it one of the fastest growing categories in the media and entertainment sector.
At the same time, digital advertising has grown 26 percent to Rs 947 billion, now contributing 63 percent of total ad revenues, signalling a strong shift towards integrated, multi platform engagement.
This is where Zee Live is playing a pivotal role, building large scale cultural and entertainment IPs that combine on ground experiences with digital scale and amplification.
Medianews4u.com caught up with Gareth Eswin Thomas CBO Zee Live
Q. The latest FICCI and EY report highlights a 44 percent surge in the organised live events segment, making it one of the fastest growing categories in the media and entertainment sector. Are the current geopolitical tensions a challenge though?
The 44% surge number reflects a genuine structural shift, not a temporary spike, and I believe the underlying drivers are strong enough to sustain growth through near-term external headwinds. Geopolitical tensions introduce specific challenges for live events — currency volatility affects international artist fees, visa processing timelines for foreign acts have become more complex, and there is some uncertainty in brand partner confidence when global markets are unsettled. These are real frictions we navigate.
However, I would make two observations. First, the growth in Indian live entertainment is primarily domestically driven. The artists creating the most excitement right now, KING, Hanumankind, Bismil, Seedhe Maut, Prateek Kuhad – are Indian artists playing to Indian audiences. Second, periods of global uncertainty tend to increase the value of local cultural experiences. When the world feels uncertain, people invest more deeply in community, in shared experiences, in things that feel real and immediate. Live events are exactly that. I would not be surprised to see the live events boom continue even if the broader economic sentiment becomes more cautious.
Q. The FICCI EY report also sees the exuberance in concerts tapering down as not all events are profitable. How do you see things shaping up in 2026?
This is the more important and more honest conversation that the industry needs to have. Several high-profile events have lost significant money, and some promoters who entered the market in the last two years are already struggling. I think 2026 will be a year of market correction rather than market decline.
The audience demand is genuinely there — that is not in question. What will correct is the economics. Artist fees will face more negotiation pressure as promoters become more disciplined. Venues will need to offer more flexible deal structures. Sponsorship returns will be scrutinized more carefully.
Q. What is the vision for Zee Live in terms of building large scale cultural and entertainment IPs that combine on ground experiences with digital scale and amplification?
The vision is quite straightforward — we want Zee Live to be the name that defines live culture in India. Our approach is deliberate. We’re building platforms that can operate at scale and take high-quality live experiences to more audiences across the country — not just metros, but anywhere there’s real demand. At the same time, we’re very clear that India isn’t a single market. The real depth comes from regional cultures, which is why we’re investing in platforms like MVP, with a long-term view on building for multiple linguistic communities.
Alongside that, being part of NH7 Weekender with NODWIN allows us to stay anchored in a property that has genuine cultural credibility — where curation matters as much as scale. What ties it all together is the Zee ecosystem. For us, these aren’t just events — they’re content engines. Every experience is designed to travel beyond the venue and live on across ZEE5, broadcast, and digital, reaching audiences at a much larger scale.
Q. Are brands receptive to this strategy as this helps them reach consumers at various touchpoints?
Yes, and the sophistication of brand partner conversations has evolved considerably in the last 18 months. Live events are one of the few environments where this consumer is genuinely open to brand presence because the brands are part of an experience they chose to have. The conversations we are having with the best brand partners now are not about logos and stage mentions. They are about: how does your brand make this night better for the people who are here?
How does our content output serve your marketing objectives beyond the event itself? Brands that engage with this more integrated model are seeing genuinely strong results – both in direct audience engagement at events and in the content reach that follows.
Q. Could you talk about recent work that was done that drove business results or brands as it gave them excellent visibility across touchpoints through live events?
NH7 Weekender 2026 is the most complete recent example I can speak to. ICONiQ White came on as the title sponsor. ICONiQ White’s branding was integrated into the event experience — stage presence, on-ground activations, crew collateral — in a way that felt native to the festival environment rather than imposed on it.
The content generated around the event carried the ICONiQ White association across the ZEE5 episode to be streamed, the social content, and the earned media coverage. The total media reach from the event exceeded 3.5 billion, and a meaningful proportion of that carried the sponsor’s brand into contexts where conventional advertising would never reach. Mastercard as powered-by partner is another example, their integration at NH7 was about enabling experience rather than interrupting it, which is the right model for live event brand partnerships.
Hell Energy also partnered as the energy drink partner for the same event. Hanumankind’s HomeRun Tour also saw a lot of attention given to brands like Thums Up, Flying Machine and Footlocker.
Q. Is there something that the Government could and should be doing to give the live entertainment sector a boost?
The Government has been working with various promoters, partners, ticketing platforms, and local State bodies to help the industry. From a Single Window clearance, to opening venues for Live Events,
The Government has taken the initiative to help the industry grow. They fact that they have the launched the Live Event Development Cell (LEDC) and have been actively engaging with all of us shows a clear intent from the government that the Live Entertainment Business is a priority for them.
Q. Is the lack of infrastructure a challenge?
It is the most consistently underestimated structural challenge in the Indian live events industry. In the top four metros, the situation has improved — there is a reasonable inventory of venues at different capacities, from 1,000-person clubs to 50,000-person stadiums. But the quality and technical capability of even these venues varies enormously.
A venue that can physically hold 20,000 people is not automatically a venue that can deliver a technically competent 20,000-person show. Sound infrastructure, power supply, backstage facilities, crowd management architecture — these vary wildly.
Outside the top metros, the challenge is more fundamental. The cities that represent the greatest untapped audience potential — Chandigarh, Jaipur, Indore, Kochi, Bhubaneswar — have very limited venue options for events above a certain scale.
This forces promoters to either work with suboptimal infrastructure or avoid these markets entirely, which leaves genuine audience demand unserved. The solution is partly private — venue operators investing in upgrading technical infrastructure — and partly public, as I mentioned earlier. As more promoters demonstrate that tier 2 city shows are commercially viable, the investment case for infrastructure improvement in those cities becomes clearer.
Q. How is AI helping in the convergence of live experiences with digital and broadcast ecosystems?
I want to be measured in how I speak about AI because I think there is a tendency in the industry to overclaim on AI capabilities that are not yet operationally mature. On the audience intelligence side, we are using AI-assisted analysis of social listening data — what is being said about our events, which artists are generating the most organic conversation, how sentiment shifts before, during, and after events. This informs both programming decisions and communication strategy.
What I am more cautious about is the application of AI to the creative and curatorial decisions that define what Zee Live stands for. The decision to bring a specific artist to a specific city at a specific moment requires a kind of cultural judgment that I do not believe AI can replicate.
It requires genuine immersion in the culture, relationships with artists and their teams, and an instinct for what an audience will respond to that is built from years of experience. That judgment is where our real edge sits, and I am not interested in outsourcing it to an algorithm.
Q. Is predictive analytics playing a growing role in helping live events evolve into scalable and monetisable IPs?
Yes, and this is an area where the gap between what is possible and what the industry is currently doing is quite large — which means the opportunity is significant.
On the demand forecasting side, we are using historical ticketing data, social listening trends, and streaming audience data to make better predictions about which artists will sell well in which cities. This sounds obvious, but it is more nuanced in practice — an artist with 10 million Spotify streams nationally may have very concentrated demand in two or three cities and very limited demand elsewhere.
Understanding that geographic concentration before we commit to a multi-city tour saves meaningful budget. On pricing, dynamic ticketing — adjusting ticket prices based on demand patterns — is something the Indian market has been slow to adopt but which international markets have demonstrated can significantly improve both revenue and accessibility when done well. The conversation about whether dynamic pricing is consumer-friendly is a legitimate one, but the underlying analytics that make it possible are genuinely valuable.
For sponsorship monetisation, better audience data — demographic profiles, consumption behaviour, brand affinity — enables Zee Live to make a more compelling commercial case to brand partners than simply providing footfall numbers.
When we can tell a brand not just how many people attended a show but who they are and how they behave, the sponsorship conversation moves from a media buy to a strategic partnership. This is directionally where we are headed and I expect the data capability of the industry to improve significantly over the next two to three years.
