India Becomes Global Leader in Media Capability Centres with 50+ Specialised Creative-Tech Hubs

India has rapidly emerged as the world's preferred destination for Media Capability Centres, transforming how global media and entertainment companies approach production, post-production, localisation, and creative operations. Industry observers noted that this trend reflected a strategic pivot from cost-driven outsourcing to value-driven innovation.

Media Capability Centres Drive Global Operations

Often referred to as the media industry's version of Global Capability Centres, MCCs have become central to the global operations of leading players across broadcasting, streaming, advertising, gaming, publishing, and sports media. These centres were designed to scale and consolidate key functions not just for efficiency, but for creative and technological leadership.

Recent industry reports described these centres as highly specialised hubs where talent, automation, and AI converged to power global content pipelines. They went far beyond the traditional back office model, increasingly handling end-to-end creative workflows including VFX, animation, dubbing, subtitling, and data-driven ad operations.

Strategic Advantages Positioning India as Media Hub

According to recent industry reports, India already housed close to 50 media-focused GCCs, with most concentrated in Mumbai commercial real estate markets, Hyderabad, Chennai, Bengaluru's thriving office space market, and Delhi NCR. These centres were supported by a vast ecosystem comprising over 100,000 creative-tech professionals, hundreds of training institutes producing world-class talent in VFX, animation, and immersive media, multilingual capability with content localised in more than eight Indian languages, and proven cost efficiencies estimated between 10 and 25 percent, reaching up to 35 percent when combined with automation partners.

This combination of creative depth and technical expertise, backed by mature infrastructure, gave India a unique edge in global media transformation.

Transition from Outsourcing to Innovation Leadership

Industry experts observed a shift in how media companies viewed India. Instead of outsourcing routine tasks, organisations were now establishing strategic, innovation-led MCCs that blended creativity, engineering, and AI technologies. India was increasingly seen not just as a delivery centre, but as a creative command post for global storytelling, experimentation, and scalable production.

Advanced workflows including AI-based video editing, automated localisation, virtual production, and real-time analytics were becoming standard in these centres, positioning them at the forefront of technology-driven operational excellence.

Major Investments Signal Growing Confidence

A leading global streaming platform expanded its presence in India by opening a 41,000 square feet creative technology centre in Hyderabad's HITEC City technology hub, adding to its existing base in Mumbai. Several multinational media firms were partnering with Indian tech and post-production service providers to integrate AI-based tools and streamline content operations at scale.

As MCCs evolved, they were also contributing to job creation, particularly in AI, VFX, and extended reality segments. The ability to fuse technology with storytelling was positioning India as a global innovation engine in the media and entertainment sector.

Future Outlook for Media Capability Centres

With AI-driven workflows enabling up to 50 percent cost savings, and India's large, trained, and multilingual workforce, the country was expected to remain a preferred destination for global media investments. Industry sentiment suggested that India was no longer competing on cost alone but emerging as a global leader in media and creative technology, where scale, speed, and innovation came together to deliver world-class content for audiences worldwide.

The expansion of these facilities was also driving demand for office real estate in technology and services sectors across major Indian cities, creating opportunities for real estate developers and investors in commercial property markets.