Digital Marketing, Ad-Tech and OTT drive media hiring recovery: Balasubramanian A, TeamLease Services – MediaNews4U

India’s Media & Entertainment hiring market is showing signs of recovery as OTT, gaming, and digital content platforms drive fresh talent demand. According to a recent TeamLease Services Limited Employment Outlook Report:
📈 Net Employment Change (NEC) for the sector has risen to 2.9% in HY1 FY2026-27 — up from 1.2% in the previous half-year. The rebound is being fueled by:
▪️ Stabilising digital monetisation models ▪
️ Increased OTT and regional content investments ▪️ Growing gaming ecosystem demand
▪️ Expansion of data-driven audience engagement strategies
Emerging high-demand roles include:
🎬 Digital content creators
🎮 Gaming, animation & VFX specialists
📊 Data analysts
📱 Performance marketers
The report also highlighted a broader industry shift toward:
⚡ Digital-first talent
⚡ Platform-led content ecosystems
⚡ Analytics and ad-tech capabilities
⚡ Leaner, tech-enabled operations
The Top hiring hubs:
📍 Mumbai – 23%
📍 Chennai – 20%
📍 Pune – 16%
Medianews4u.com caught up with Balasubramanian A, Senior Vice President, TeamLease Services
Q. One of your reports shows a 2.9% job growth in media. Is that real recovery?
It’s a measured recovery, not a boom. Media & Entertainment’s Net Employment Change rose to 2.9% in HY1 FY2026-27 from 1.2%, with 54% of employers hiring against 25% still cutting, so momentum is building but uneven. It’s backed by real intent: sector salary growth also rose to 9.1% from 7.7%, per our Jobs and Salaries Primer 2026 (JSP), showing employers are paying up, not just posting jobs.
Growth is structural, driven by rising OTT subscriptions, ad-tech sophistication and regional-language content, concentrated in digital roles like VFX, animation and platform tech, and clustered in hubs like Hyderabad and Bengaluru. So it’s a genuine, but selective, recovery.
Q. Why do OTT and gaming lead hiring while print and TV lose jobs?
It comes down to where monetisation and audience attention are actually shifting. Our Employment Outlook Report F1 FY27 (EOR) data shows Media & Entertainment hiring is concentrated in digital content production, animation and VFX, performance marketing, and platform technology, areas tied directly to OTT and gaming growth, rising OTT subscriptions, expanding regional-language content, and more sophisticated ad-tech. Streaming platforms and gaming studios are scaling teams because their revenue models are still expanding, so they need talent to build and monetise that growth.
Traditional print and broadcast formats, by contrast, are contending with slower ad-revenue growth and audiences migrating to mobile-first, on-demand consumption, which limits the case for fresh hiring even as digital arms of the same companies expand. So it’s less about media overall struggling and more about capital and headcount following where consumption and monetisation are actually growing.
Q. If 29% cut print and TV jobs but hiring grows then who gains and who gets left behind?
Roles tied to digital monetisation gain, digital content production, animation and VFX, performance marketing, and platform technology, as OTT, gaming and ad-tech expand.
Those left behind are largely in traditional print and broadcast functions, where slower ad revenue and shifting audience consumption limit fresh hiring, even within the same media houses. It reflects a shift in where value is being created, not the sector as a whole shrinking.
Q. Do students coming out of college still have a shot in this market?
Yes, the opportunity is real, but it now rewards preparation over credentials alone. Fresher hiring intent has surged sharply, from around 11% to 62% in functions like marketing, with roughly three in four employers overall planning to bring freshers on board this year.
That demand runs across the spectrum, from digital and analytics-linked roles to frontline and seasonal positions like delivery and warehouse work, where temporary hiring is expected to grow another 15-20% this festive season. What ties it together is that employers are increasingly screening for task-readiness and specific, relevant skills rather than just a degree or years of experience.
Q. What does Mumbai, Delhi, and Chennai still being top hubs tell us?
Their continued lead shows hiring strength tracks capability, not just size. Cities pull ahead by combining talent depth, infrastructure, and client or industry proximity that employers already trust.
This also means growth stays concentrated rather than broad-based; expansion follows ecosystems, not the map. So established hubs retain their edge because they’ve converted infrastructure and talent density into lasting employer confidence.
Q. When you say 54% want to hire but 25% still cut, is that confidence or caution?
It’s both, and that’s the more honest signal. A 54% growth rate against 25% still reducing shows employers are leaning into demand, driven by OTT growth, ad-tech, and regional content, without fully letting go of cost discipline.
It reflects selective confidence: companies are betting on digital-first, revenue-linked roles while trimming in areas where monetisation hasn’t caught up yet. So it’s not caution overriding growth, or blind optimism either, it’s employers backing where they see real demand and staying cautious everywhere else.
Q. There is cautious expansion, but over half plan to hire. Isn’t that quite optimistic?
It is genuinely optimistic, just not unconditional. A jump from 1.2% to 2.9% net employment change, with 54% of employers actively hiring, is a real signal of confidence, not a marginal uptick.
But the presence of 25% still reducing headcount tells us this optimism is concentrated in digital content, OTT, gaming and ad-tech, rather than spread evenly across the sector. So it’s fair to call it optimism, but a targeted one: employers are convinced enough to hire meaningfully, just not convinced enough to expand everywhere at once.
Q. Is the creator economy creating stable jobs or just gig work?
It’s moving toward stability, not staying purely gig-based. Coverage around our commentary points to companies actively formalising the creator workforce, bringing influencers and content creators onto structured payrolls and retainers as influencer marketing matures, rather than treating them as one-off freelance engagements.
That said, this shift is uneven, for many creators, especially outside top-tier talent, gig-style, project-based work remains the norm. So the honest read is that the creator economy is professionalising at the top, with brands and platforms building longer-term roles, while a large base underneath still operates on flexible, gig terms.
Q. How do small cities like Jaipur and Lucknow fit into this hiring story?
Jaipur and Lucknow are emerging as genuine growth markets, not overflow hubs. Their salary increment outlook, 9.3% and 9.1% respectively, is now competitive with several metros, backed by manufacturing expansion and industrial corridor development.
They’re becoming the connective layer between India’s established hubs and its next growth frontier. But it’s capability-led, not broad-based, these cities are rising where they’ve built real strengths, not just absorbing spillover.
Q. What is the one skill that you would tell a 16-year-old to learn now to stay relevant?
Digital literacy, the ability to learn and apply new tools quickly, rather than any single technical skill. Our own data shows employers ranking digital literacy as the top talent capability anchoring hiring, well ahead of specific technical certifications.
Tools and platforms will keep changing, but the capacity to adapt fast, understand data, and work alongside AI systems is what will keep someone employable across sectors, media included. A 16-year-old who builds that adaptability now will be better placed than one who masters a single skill that may look very different in five years.
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