Sahara One restructures itself
Under the leadership of its new CEO Avinash Kaul, Hindi GEC Sahara One has launched its new corporate identity with a changed logo and all new team.
Beside Kaul who comes from NDTV, Sheetal Ladha has joined the channel as Programming Head. Creative Director Mushtak Shekh has been given the responsibility to oversee new concept and ideas.
While AIDEM Ventures, which was recently created by Raj Nayak has been given the responsibility of sales, Karthik L has been put in as head-Marketing and International Distribution (UK, US and Canada). For the rest of the international distribution, Sahara One Media Entertainment Limited (SOMEL) has appointed Pallav Nagar, former Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel) head subscription - Asia Pacific. Nagar will take care of South East Asia, the Middle East and North Africa region.
For the movie acquisition business, the company has appointed Select Media Holdings’ Vikrant Rai as Head - syndication. SOMEL has recruited former NDTV Media executive Viral Jani as AVP - research & strategic planning. Also, Puruskar Gupta has joined the company as head - finance. He comes from Real Global Broadcasting.
The channel has also got a new feel and logo designed in-house by the OAP (on-air promotion) team, headed by Ashish Kapoor.
(May 2010)

NDS appoints Anoop Varma as Director
NDS, a leading provider of technology solutions for digital pay-TV, has announced the appointment of Anoop Varma as Director of Sales for NDS India. Anoop will report to Alan Dishington, General Manager, NDS India.
In his new position, Anoop will oversee all business development, sales and pre-sales activities for NDS in India.
Prior to joining NDS India, Anoop has worked for national and international media brands including Viaccess, Star News and Aaj Tak News.
(May 2010)

Discovery appoints Rajiv Bakshi VP
Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific has announced the promotion of Rajiv Bakshi to Vice President – Marketing for India region.
In his new leadership role, Rajiv will be responsible for creating and implementing strategic marketing initiatives for Discovery’s entire portfolio of six networks in India. He will continue to report to Rahul Johri, senior vice president & general manager, India.
During his last five years at Discovery, Rajiv played a critical role in driving ratings for Discovery Channel, establishing India’s leading lifestyle channel Discovery Travel & Living and refreshing Animal Planet. With over 12 years of experience, Rajiv has worked in various capacities across diverse sectors including FMCG, Auto, Durables and Hospitality.
(May 2010)

Sanjeev Srivastava quits Sahara
Sanjeev Srivastava has quit Sahara India Media which he had joined as CEO and Editor-in-Chief in January, 2010.
He comes with over 25 years of experience with various media organisations including the Times of India and Indian Express and most recently as head – BBC Hindi output.
(May 2010)

Disney India realigns top rung
May 20, 2010. The Walt Disney Co, India has announced key changes to its top management in the country.
While director of strategic sales and market development Vijay Subramaniam has been given an additional charge of Disney India Media Solutions and Alliances (DIMSA), Roshini Bakshi who was the regional director for consumer products has now been promoted to VP-Consumer Products, Publishing and Retail. Swati Shetty has also been promoted to Walt Disney Studios International Production (India) theatrical productions and acquisitions executive director. Prior to this, she was director for theatrical production and acquisition.
The announcements come as Disney’s increasing focus on retail and on making and acquisition of Bollywood movies.
The Walt Disney Company in India has named Raju Venkataraman, as Vice President and General Manager - Disney Media Distribution.
(May 2010)

DP Reddy takes-charge as Jt Secretary - Broadcasting
April 5, 2010. A Punjab Cadre IAS officer, DP Reddy has taken charge of Broadcasting at the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
Mr Reddy takes charge from Zohra Chatterjee who has held the position of Joint Secretary (Broadcasting) since May, 2007 till a new appointment is made for the post. Chatterjee has been appointed Member Secretary in the rank of Additional Secretary to the National Commission for Women.
DP Reddy has already been holding the position of Joint Secretary (Films) since February 2010.
(April 2010)

Raj Nayak expands his team, takes Kaushal Dalal
April 6, 2010. Former NDTV CEO Raj Nayak who has recently announced to form his own media company named Aidem Vnetures has started building his team.
Mr Nayak has appointed Kaushal Dalal as EVP – Business Development & Strategy at his new media venture. Mr Dalal has also been given an additional responsibility of finance, legal and investment related matters of the company.
Earlier, Kaushal had worked with Star TV for over nine years where as the head of business development where he was involved in all new business projects and transactions for Indian operations of Star.
(April 2010)

Tony D’Silva elevated as CEO
April 9, 2010. Sun Direct Chief Operating Officer (COO) Tony D’Silva has been promoted to the post of the company’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
D’Silva who had worked with brands like Star, Zee and Modi Entertainment had joined Sun Direct in September, 2007.
(April 2010)

Neeraj Goswami quits Warner Bros.
April 14, 2010. Warner Bros. India – National Sales Head Neeraj Goswami has put-in his papers to the company.
Neeraj has been serving at Warner Bros India for last three and a half years. He has not revealed his next move, yet.
(April 2010)

Restructuring at Viacom18
April 13, 2010. In two major announcements by Viacom18, Deputy General Manager of VH1 Ferzad Palia and MTV Sales Head – North & East Jaideep Singh have been elevated.
While Palia has been promoted to Head-VH1, Jaideep has been made National Head- Sales at MTV. Ferzad Palia has been given responsibility for all functions of the channel and will report to Viacom18 Group CEO Haresh Chawla. However, Jaideep Singh will continue reporting to MTV India senior VP – marketing and sales Aditya Swamy.
Major restructuring at the company is also likely to be announced soon.
(April 2010)

Amit Malhotra elevated as VP at Disney
April 30, 2010. Amit Malhotra takes over the role of Vice President – Programme Distribution, Asia Pacific at Disney Media Distribution from Greg Johnson who is leaving the company.
Malhotra has been with Disney for over six years, having started off India operations for the Walt Disney Company’s TV business in the country in 2004. Malhotra has built a significant and successful pan-regional and South East Asia wide business for the organisation.
(April 2010)

Harsh Rohtagi made content head at Imagine TV
April 28, 2010. Turner General Entertainment Networks India Ltd (TGEN) has announced that Harsh Rohatgi has taken over the role of head of content and communication of its flagship Hindi GEC, Imagine TV.
In his new role, Harsh will oversee all the creative, strategic, marketing, commercial and management functions of Imagine TV which will include programming, marketing, communication, commercial, research and strategic planning. A key member of the management team of Imagine since inception, Rohatgi previously held the position of EVP — revenue management and new ventures at the channel.
In a related development, Shailaja Kejriwal, Executive Vice President (content) is moving on from the channel.
(April 2010)

Rameet Arora moves from Colors
April 28, 2010. Marketing Head of the Hindi GEC Colors, Rameet Arora has put in his papers to the company.
Arora has been part of the start up team of the Colors since April 2008. during this tenure he has taken the role of marketing for the channel, overseeing all the marketing verticals – trade as well as consumer. Prior to joining Colors, Arora was Vice president and Director Corporate Initiative at Leo Burnett for over 8 years.
Arora who is presently serving his notice period of 3 months will be joining the food retail chain McDonald’s as Senior Director.
(April 2010)

Star India appoints Abhishek Verma

March 10, 2010. Star India has appointed Abhishek Verma as the marketing head of Star World and Star Movies. He will report to Star India EVP Marketing Anupam Vasudev.
Verma leaves Neo Sports as head - marketing and communication to take up his new assignment at Star.
(March 2010)

Zee Turner VP quits

March 5, 2010. Zee Turner Senior VP cable sales Dilip Sharan has quit the company. Sharan was responsible for developing and implementing the cable sales strategy after joining Zee Turner in August 2009.
Meanwhile, Zee Turner has put Himmat Sandhu in charge of cable sales for the time being. Sandhu was handling cable sales before Sharan joined.
(March 2010)

ZEEL re-structures duties at senior level

March 4, 2010. In its restructuring efforts, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL) has given the responsibility of regional channels in the Hindi speaking markets to Nitin Vaidya who is currently the COO, national channels and business head of Zee TV.
Now after the re-alignment, while business heads of Zee Marathi, Zee Bangla, Akash Bangla, Zee Jagran, ETC Punjabi, Zee Salam and Zee Talkies will report to Vaidya, the responsibility of ZEEL’s English channels – Zee Studio and Zee Café has been taken from Vaidya and has been given to Anurag Bedi who is currently heading business operations for music channels Zing, ETC and Zee Trendz.
Chief Revenue Officer at ZEEL Joy Chakraborthy has been awarded an additional responsibility of handling the profit and loss accounts of five channels.
(March 2010)

Nikhil Gandhi made Business Head – UTV Bindass

March 20, 2010. Nikhil Gandhi has been made Business Head of UTV Bindass. He has been given an additional responsibility of Bindass as he continues as Vice President and Network Head – Sales at UTV Global Broadcasting Ltd (UGBL).
Nikhil takes charge from Heather Gupta who was given additional responsibility of Bindass and Bindass Movies, last year besides her responsibility as VP – HR.
(March 2010)

Amar Tidke appointed 9XM Programming Head

March 25, 2010. Amar Tidke has been appointed INX Media’s music channel 9XM’s programming head. He comes from Fever FM Mumbai where he was working as programming head.
Tidke has been given the task of driving the creative and programming function of the channel.
(March 2010)

Raghu Menon elected Chairman IPDC

March 25, 2010. India has become the first developing country to chair the Inter-Governmental Council of the International Programme for Development of Communication (IPDC) as Secretary at Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Raghu Menon has been elected as Chairman of the council.
Since its inception in 1980, the Chairmanship had always remained with developed countries but this time, the candidature of the India, endorsed by Asia Pacific Regional Group and supported by countries from Africa, Arab and Lain American Region, won the election with 23 out of 37 votes against Switzerland which got 14 votes.
On the election, Mr Menon thanked the members of the Inter-Governmental Council and asked the media to be more inclusive to ensure spread, reach and coverage of media accessibility to all the citizens.
India will be chairing the Inter-Governmental Council of IPDC till its next Session in 2012.
(March 2010)

Ashish quits Viacom, joins YRF

March 29, 2010. Ashish Patil who was recently designated the Sr VP- New Ventures and GM - Youth Movies at Viacom 18, has put-in his papers to the company.
Patil is serving his notice period at Viacom18 and would join Yash Raj Films as Business and Content Head for a new division which would create youth movies. He will take on his assignment at YRF from April 1, 2010. At Yash Raj Films, he would be reporting to Aditya Chopra, Vice Chairman, Yash Raj Films.
Patil started his career over 15 years ago with Contract Advertising as a Copywriter. He has worked with MTV for 12 years. His last role at MTV was as a general manager before he was elevated to Viacom 18.
(March 2010)

Eros appoints Rajesh Bahl

March 29, 2010. Eros International Media, the Indian media and entertainment company has appointed Rajesh Bahl as Chief Digital Officer to spearhead its digital initiatives across all the new media platforms. He would head Mobile, Online, DTH, IPTV, Cable and other emerging platforms at the company.
Bahl worked with Star India where he headed the Mobile business as part of Star Digital group.
(March 2010)

Raj Nayak quits NDTV Media, sets-up new company

March 30, 2010. One of the founding members and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NDTV Media Ltd Raj Naik has announced to quit the company.
After serving seven years at the company, Nayak has decided to set-up his own venture to be named AIDEM Ventures Pvt Ltd. In a joint press statement along with NDTV Chairperson Prannoy Roy, Raj Nayak said, “In my 23 years of experience, I‘ve had the opportunity of handling some of the biggest media brands in India like ESPN STAR Sports, STAR TV Network & many more; but launching NDTV channels in 2003 with Radhika and Prannoy Roy & the NDTV team was one of the most exciting & challenging assignments of my career.”
(March 2010)

Shalini Behl appointed ‘What’s On India’ channel head

Feb 16, 2010. Shalini Behl has been appointed as Channel Head, What's On India.
Behl will be managing the programming, distribution, marketing, and on air functions, apart from day to day running of the channel.
Prior to this, she was with Reliance Big TV, where she had handled revenue function of VAS services and was responsible for launching all the interactive services on the platform. In Behl's 15-year old career, she has worked on various roles from ad agencies to media marketing, content acquisition and revenue functions across industries. In the past, she has also worked with channels such as Zee TV and Sony Entertainment Channel.
(February 2010)

Ravinder Taneja joined WWIL

Feb 16, 2010. Ravinder Taneja has joined Wire and Wireless India Limited (WWIL) as Senior Vice President - Sales &Operations (HITS).
Before joining WWIL, he was working with Tata Teleservices Limited as Vice President – Enterprise Business and has 21 years of rich experience in operational processes relating to acquisition cost and budgetary control, market planning, distribution and channel development, product & communication including brand retail.
Mr. Taneja has worked in different capacities with P& G Godrej, PepsiCo Limited, CANDICO India Limited, PVR Pictures Limited and Hindustan Times. His key achievements include developing new businesses into sizeable operations, setting up operations and bottling plants for Pepsi, setting up operations and printing facilities for Hindustan Times, distribution infrastructure, service centres, retail franchisee chain, call centre operations and tower infrastructure for Tata Teleservices.
(February 2010)

Himanshu quits Big FM

Feb 16, 2010. Himanshu Shekhar has put in his papers at Big FM as regional head of North and West India, after a two-year stint.
According to the sources, Shekhar is currently serving his notice period at the FM radio company. He is likely to join Mindshare Fulcrum in Jakarta where he will be handling the account of Unilever. This will be his second stint with Mindshare Fulcrum, where Shekhar had earlier served for eight years before joining Big FM in 2008.
(February 2010)

Avinash Kaul to head b’cast bizz at Sahara

Feb 19, 2010. Avinash Kaul has been made Head, Broadcast Operations at Sahara Media and Entertainment Limited. Avinash will be managing the operations of the three channels of Sahara - Sahara One, Filmy and Firangi.
Avinash has come from NDTV Media where he was the Executive Vice President since the company’s inception in 2002. Before joining NDTV Media, Kaul had worked with the Star India Group as the Senior Manager and with Discovery Communications as Assistant Manager.
(February 2010)

Fox India appoints Keertan as MD

Feb 24, 2010. FOX International Channels has announced the appointment of Keertan Adyanthaya as the new Managing Director for FOX International Channels India. He will take charge from April, 2010.
Keertan will be responsible for all existing FOX International Channels in India including its strong existing brands like National Geographic Channel and FOX History & Entertainment as well as its upcoming ones like Baby TV, Nat Geo Wild, Nat Geo Adventure, Nat Geo Music and National Geographic Channel HD.
With a career spanning over 15-years in allied fields of the media, he has earlier worked media companies including O&M, Mindshare, Channel V, Star News, VH-1 and Star Plus.
(February 2010)

My Profile Vikas Sharma

Vikas Sharma Quits Digi Cable and joins WWIL a Zee Network Company as Business Head , North & West - India will look after Ad Sales & Programming for the regions
Having experience of more then 15 years worked with Phyche TV Movie Centre, Siti Cable, AM Trinity Pletco Ltd, Total TV, Lok Shabha Television (Parliament of India), Digi cable Network (India) Pvt. Ltd
(February 2010)

ZEEL Digital Head Ishwar Jha Quits

Jha has been associated with ZEEL for more than four years; to set up his venture on digital media platform.
BestMediaInfo Bureau | Delhi | February 24, 2010
Ishwar Jha, the head of digital services at Essel group company Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL) has called it a day. March 3, 2010 would be his last working day at ZEEL. Jha has been associated with ZEEL for more than four years.
Confirming the development to BestMediaInfo.com, Jha said that he might head towards entrepreneurship and set up his own venture on digital media platform.
Jha had founded Digital Media Convergence Ltd, the Zee Group’s venture into digital entertainment in June 2006 and during a 2 year period as Chief Executive Officer, inked a partnership with BSNL partnership for Mobile TV, launched the entertainment portal Mypopkorn.com, and a digital content syndication for the subsidiary.
ZEEL owns channels Zee TV, Zee Cinema, Zee Premier, Zee Action, Zee Classic, Ten Sports, Zee Sports, Zee Cafe, Zee Studio, Zee Trendz, Zee Jagran, Zing, ETC Network, Zee Motion Pictures and Zee Limelight.
(February 2010)

Viacom18 Appoints Gaurav Gandhi As The Chief Commercial Officer

Gaurav will head the International Business also; he comes in here from NDTV Imagine.
BestMediaInfo Bureau | Mumbai | February 26, 2010
Viacom18, (an equal JV between Viacom Inc. and the Network18 Group) India’s fastest growing entertainment conglomerate, today announced the appointment of Gaurav Gandhi as the Chief Commercial Officer - Viacom18 Group. In this newly created role, Gaurav will also spearhead Viacom18's international business and will be reporting to Rajesh Kamat, Group COO - Viacom18 and CEO - COLORS.
Speaking on the appointment, Rajesh said, "Given our exponential growth as a group in the last 18 months and our future growth plans, it is now critical that we centralize our cost and commercial functions, thus ensuring synergies between various group businesses. Given Gaurav's relevant experience and proven track record, I am confident in his ability to add value across the group."
Gaurav joins Viacom18 from NDTV Imagine and brings with him over a decade of experience in the media and broadcasting space. Before NDTV he spent close to 4 yrs at STAR India, where he handled various assignments including Content Acquisition, Business planning & Syndication.
(February 2010)

Vikas Varma quits 9XM, joins MTV

Jan 18, 2010. Vikas Varma has quit INX Media where he was heading the music entertainment channel 9XM and Content-9X, the Hindi GEC of INX Media.
Varma has now joined Viacom 18 owned music channel MTV as its creative and content Head. He replaces MTV India GM and VP Ashish Patil who has been elevated as Senior VP of new ventures at Viacom 18.
(January 2010)

Ashish Patil joins Kamat’s team at Viacom 18
Jan 18, 2010. MTV India General Manager and Vice President Ashish Patil has been elevated as the Senior Vice President, New Ventures and General Manager, Youth Movies at Viacom 18.
Patil has joined Rajesh Kamat’s team who has been made the head of the group’s new ventures.
(January 2010)

NDS announces key appointments for Asia

Jan 20, 2010. Underlying the achievements of its team of executives in China, NDS is pleased to announce the following key promotions on January 20, 2010.
Chris Yap has been promoted to Vice President and General Manager, Cable, for NDS Greater China, reporting to Sue Taylor, Vice President and General Manager Asia Pacific. He is responsible for new accounts in the Asia Pacific region; regional strategy; and the technical support and delivery teams in China, Hong Kong, South Korea, India, SE Asia and Australia. Chris also oversees the cable business for the region and manages the team in China.
Yvonne Wang, Tigo Yeung, Sammy Qiu, Ben Liu have also been promoted to various positions in Asia.
(January 2010)

Reshuffle in I&B Ministry

Jan 24, 2010. A senior officer of the Punjab Cadre DP Reddy has been appointed Joint Secretary at the Information and Broadcasting Ministry. He replaces VB Pyarelal and is given charge of Films in the Ministry.
VB Pyarelal has been made Joint Secretary – Information and Additional Secretary Uday K Varma has been appointed Special Secretary at the Ministry.
(January 2010)

Mrinal Pande appointed Prasar Bharti Chairperson
Jan 24, 2010. A renowned journalist and author Mrinal Pande has been appointed Prasar Bharti Chairperson. She replaces Arun Bhatnagar whose resignation was accepted by the Government on December 18, 2009.
Earlier, Pande has left the Hindustan Times Group as Chief Editor of Hindi daily Hindustan, last year. She has also worked as Editor of women’s magazine “Vama”.
(January 2010)

Rajesh Kamat elevated as Viacom 18 COO

Jan 18, 2010. Rajesh Kamat has been elevated as the Chief Operating Officer of Viacom 18. The post of COO is newly created. Kamat will continue his current assignment as CEO for Colors.
Kamat has worked with companies such as Endemol, STAR India and Coa Cola.
(January 2010)

Tushar Shah back to MSM

Multi Screen Media (MSM) has re-appointed Tushar Shah as Senior Vice President – Corporate Services. Shah will be given charge of Channel 8, the Bengali channel that the MSM has acquired.
Tushar Shah had earlier worked with Sony Entertainment Television (Now MSM) which he had left to join Walt Disney as its India Director – Marcomm. Over his vast experience of 20 years in telecom and media, he has also worked with brands like Times of India, Telstra and Hutch.
(January 2010)

NewsCorp re-structures management

NewsCorp has announced a major restructuring plan within the organization.
The Group has created a new designation of Entertainment Chairman at Fox Networks and has appointed Peter Rice to the position. Rice will oversee all entertainment-centered domestic Fox networks.
Fox Sports chairman and CEO David Hill will be in charge of all Fox sports TV operations including the company's 19 regional sports networks besides Fox Sports, Fox Soccer Channel, Fox Sports en Espanol and Fuel TV as well as the company's joint venture sports businesses with Stats and Big Ten Network.
Both Rice and Hill will continue to report to Fox Networks Group chairman and CEO Tony Vinciquerra. The group is planning to create some more posts in the coming months.
(January 2010)

Hindujas appoint Sunir Kheterpal as CEO

The Hinduja Group on January 6, 2010 has announced the appointment of Sunir Kheterpal as the CEO of IN Entertainment.
Sunir Kheterpal comes on board from Reliance BIG Entertainment, where he set up the international and domestic distribution business for the Group before moving on to managing key co-production relationships at BIG Pictures.
Sunir has previously worked in the banking and financial services industry with Bank of America, Rabobank and YES Bank.
(January 2010)

Padmanabhan made BloombergUTV VP

Manoj Padmanabhan has joined UTV’s business channel BloombergUTV as Vice President-Sales. He will be reporting to the channel’s business head Deepak Lamba.
Padmanabhan has left Ten Sports as Director-ad sales in order to take-up his new assignment at BloombergUTV.
(January 2010)

Ross leaves BBC

Jonathan Ross, one of the highest paid presenters of the UK has announced his retirement from BBC.
Jonathan has decided not to continue with BBC after his contract terminating in July. Jonathan has been hosting two of the BBC’s most popular shows - Film 2010 and Radio 2.
(January 2010)

Network18 realigns human resource

Focusing on its web and mobile businesses, Network18 has realigned its human resources within the group.
While Lakshmi Narasimhan who was earlier heading the Group’s special interest publishing and printing operations business, Infomedia18, has been appointed as CEO of Web18, the Group’s web and mobile business, Surya Mantha, who was earlier CEO of Web18, has now been designated as Executive Director, Convergence at Network18.
(January 2010)