ITV

Category: People

  • Naresh Ramnath joins Pioneer Channel Factory as COO

    Naresh Ramnath joins Pioneer Channel Factory as COO

    MUMBAI: There was an itch to do more, something bigger. That’s what got Naresh Ramnath to quit his position as vice president of programming at Astro Malaysia and join Yogesh Radhakrishnan’s Pioneer Channel Factory as COO in mid April.

     

    With two music channels in the pipeline, the company is looking at increasing its portfolio with the first in the line up being a live concert channel that will show recorded versions of live concerts by international rock, pop and jazz bands and later on will also include Indian bands. However, it won’t be restricted to just being a channel but will also be spread as a service.

     

    “Our main aim will be to create brands that can increase the willingness to pay from viewers, advertisers and operators. Apart from this focus will also be on the digital and OTT platform,” says Ramnath speaking to indiantelevision.com. He added that the company will also be keenly looking at launching other HD channels.

     

    Ramnath has over a decade of experience in the media industry starting off with the Zee Network and then moving on to UTV. His earlier stint was with Astro in Malaysia where he was vice president of programming for its channels for over seven years. As far as his new leaf with Pioneer Channel Factory is concerned Ramnath says, “I’ve always wanted to do something like this and it excites me!”

  • Integrated Network Solutions appoints Shamik Talukder

    Integrated Network Solutions appoints Shamik Talukder

    MUMBAI: Integrated Network Solutions (INS), a wholly owned subsidiary of Viacom18 Media has announced the appointment of Shamik Talukder as its vice president and head of revenue management and business development.

     

    With over 16 years of experience in revenue assurance, brand development and marketing in the Media & Entertainment industry, Talukder’s new role will include business development and revenue management of Live Viacom18 (large format Live event Impact properties), Be Viacom18 (On ground activations in film advertising and promotions) and Spotlight (creation, management and operation of digital media interfaces for individual celebrities across genres).

     

    Viacom18 INS senior vice president & business head Jaideep Singh said, “Our debut year has been a successful journey where we created multiple IPs. As we consolidate our offerings and build capacity across network we are happy to announce Shamik entry into the Viacom 18 family. Shamik’s keen understanding of the business and his contribution to the division will be vital to our growth story as we move into the next phase.”

     

    Talukder said, “INS has done some great work in the past year, and I am eager to be a part of it. With my new role at INS, I look forward to leveraging the popularity and strength of the existing IPs, creating engaging solutions for brands on the digital platform through Spotlight, build customized solutions for brands in the film advertising and promotion space. It is an exciting space to be in and combining the properties to create new business opportunities will be my focus.”

  • BBC Global News appoints Naveen Jhunjhunwala as India COO

    BBC Global News appoints Naveen Jhunjhunwala as India COO

    MUMBAI: Last month, indiantelevision.com broke the news that BBC Global News India COO Preet Dhupar had decided to move out of her 14 year stint with the company. Now, the global broadcaster has found a person to fill the space in Naveen Jhunjhunwala.

     

    Jhunjhunwala was previously with Turner International India for 15 years as vice president for corporate finance and administration, looking after the financial functions for distribution, ad sales and marketing of CNN International, Cartoon Network, POGO and HBO in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan.

     

    Speaking on his new role Jhunjhunwala said, “I am delighted to be joining the BBC. I am looking forward to taking up my new role and to being part of the talented team at one of the world’s most renowned news operations. The BBC is an iconic brand and carries a special position for the Indian audience and in today’s dynamic market place, with digitisation, growing online penetration and the BBC’s special focus on India, it has exceptional potential for growth in both television and online space.”

     

    At Turner, he helped launch the company’s India operatons including the CN subscription business, launch of new channels like HBO, POGO and WB. He also helped set up the Zee Turner distribution JV, including MediaPro as well as CNN-IBN. Prior to Turner, he was with Ernst & Young in New Delhi.

     

    The role of COO for India was created last year to better organise the company’s business operations in a growing Indian market. Apart from looking at finance, Jhunjhunwala will also be responsible for determining BBC’s commercial priorities and targets for news across the country as well as ad revenue, content distribution and audience growth.

     

    “I’m pleased to welcome Naveen on board at such an exciting time for the BBC’s news interests in India.  Naveen brings with him a wealth of experience and will be a real asset to the BBC, building on the successful work to date of our teams in Delhi and Mumbai,” said BBC Global News CEO Jim Egan.

     

    “India is a country we are proud to have been broadcasting to and from for more than seven decades and we remain committed to our audiences here. We have featured India in two dedicated programming seasons on BBC World News already this year, have recently launched a new Indian edition of bbc.com/mobile and are mid-way through our most comprehensive coverage ever of the Indian general election. I am sure Naveen will be invaluable as we work to develop even further in this exciting and dynamic market,” he added.

     

    Naveen will take up his position in Delhi on 1 May. He replaces Preet Dhupar who left the organisation earlier this month.

  • Discovery appoints Nilesh Zaveri as SVP &CFO, finance and corporate operations

    Discovery appoints Nilesh Zaveri as SVP &CFO, finance and corporate operations

    MUMBAI:  Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific (DNAP) has appointed Nilesh Zaveri as senior vice president and chief financial officer, finance & corporate operations, effective 28 April. In his new role, Zaveri will provide strategic financial and corporate operations leadership, oversee all aspects of financial management for DNAP, and lead the interface and execution of key business decisions.

     

    Zaveri joins Discovery from Fox Sports Asia (a 21st Century Fox Company, formerly known as News Corporation), where he held the role of regional CFO since 2012, based in Singapore.  Zaveri has worked with 21st Century Fox for 11 years across multiple business units in Asia where he was previously the head of finance for News Corporation Asia, based in Hong Kong and has held various finance positions with the Star Group in Mumbai and Hong Kong.  He began his career with PricewaterhouseCoopers and Deloitte.  He is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, and holds a Bachelor of Commerce from Mumbai University.

     

    DNAP president & managing director Arjan Hoekstra said, “Nilesh is a strong strategic and commercially-focused finance leader with extensive experience across the pan-regional media landscape. We look forward to welcoming him into the Discovery family and benefiting from his expertise as DNAP continues its expansion and growth across the region.”

  • Turner appoints Marianne Lee as general entertainment head for Asia Pacific

    Turner appoints Marianne Lee as general entertainment head for Asia Pacific

    MUMBAI: Turner International Asia Pacific has announced the appointment of Marianne Lee as its vice president-content, general entertainment. Lee will take over his new role, effective 2 May and will report directly to Turner International Asia Pacific president Ricky Ow.

     

    In this role, she will define and execute content and channel strategy for Turner Broadcasting System Asia Pacific general entertainment brands. Her focus will include WarnerTV, and two special interest brands, TCM Turner Classic Movies and truTV.

     

    WarnerTV is a recent addition to Turner’s Asia Pacific stable of brands that makes a bold statement and demonstrates Turner’s commitment to general entertainment and to audiences that are passionate about great television. With WarnerTV, the Turner portfolio now includes Asia Pacific’s best-loved brands in the news, kids and general entertainment genres.

     

    Commenting on Lee’s appointment Ow said, “We’re delighted to welcome Marianne to the team. With WarnerTV now a Turner brand, she arrives at a critical time to build on its existing number one ranking and to develop our entertainment brand bouquet even further. Under her leadership, we can look forward to Turner’s entertainment channels scaling greater heights of audience appeal and excitement, as well as more new offerings.”

     

    Lee will relocate to Hong Kong from Singapore, where she was most recently director of programming and acquisitions for Universal Networks International. There she was responsible for the overall program strategy in Asia, including program acquisitions, scheduling, format acquisitions and original productions.

     

    Prior to Universal, Lee was senior director of programming at Sony Pictures Television Networks, Asia, a company she was with for almost five years. This followed more than 10 years at Television Broadcasts Ltd in Hong Kong, where she garnered experience in ad sales, marketing and led the program acquisition team.

  • ETV Bangla inducts Zee Bangla’s Sujay Kutty as business head

    ETV Bangla inducts Zee Bangla’s Sujay Kutty as business head

    KOLKATA: ETV Bangla, a regional general entertainment channels (GEC), under the belt of Network18 has appointed Sujay Kutty as its business head.

     

    Kutty who was earlier with Zee Bangla as the executive vice president, business head, is likely to take up the new role with ETV Bangla from 22 April.

     

    Also, the GEC came up with a dedicated afternoon time band called ‘Duronto Dupur’last week with an aim to target huge viewership by creating original content.

     

    When ETV Bangla programming head Ritika Roy was contacted she confirmed the appointment of Kutty.

     

    “With the channel spending a lot on the original content and looking at huge revenues, Kutty is likely to play a crucial role,” ETV Bangla official added.

     

    “Money brings more money. The investment by TV18 is big and it expects a bigger return too. Sujay is joining ETV that is certain. Business revenue will be one of his KRAs. I hope ETV can bring in a dose of fresh entertainment programs in the already saturated market,” feels a city-based media expert Swaraj Mukherjee.

     

    Being a GEC , ETV Bangla provides a variety of programs- including cultural events, family dramas, movies, debates, children’s programs and tourism, among other shows.

     

    Some of the original programmes telecasted are ‘Prathamar Rannaghar’, ‘Jhalak Dikhlaja Bangla’, ‘Ranga Mathaye Chiruni’, ‘Bigg Boss Bangla’ and ‘Sadhok Bamakhyapa’.

     

    ETV Bangla, which aired three news bulletins till March, has stopped telecasting news after floating the news channel, ETV News Bangla, last month.

  • Vinay Sheshgiri to head Suvarna News and Kannada Prabha Sales

    Vinay Sheshgiri to head Suvarna News and Kannada Prabha Sales

    BENGALURU: Vinay Sheshgiri, who joined Asianet News Network last month, to head Kannada Prabha sales, will now have an additional responsibility of heading Suvarna News sales nationally.

     

    Confirming the development, ANN executive director & chief executive officer C Shyamsundar says, “Vinay takes over as VP national sales – Suvarna News & Kannada Prabha, with immediate effect. He has been entrusted with the responsibility of accelerating revenues and building synergies between two powerful brands -Kannada Prabha, a Kannada daily and Suvarna News channel.”

     

    During his 17 year experience in sales, business development and key accounts management areas, Sheshgiri has worked for Times Group, Airtel, VRL and Radiant Corporate Network, at various levels from asst. manager to vice president.

     

     

    Part of ANN (Asianet News Network), Suvarna News and  Asianet News are leading news channels in Karnataka and Kerala respectively says ANN, which further claims that Kannada Prabha is amongst the most trusted and widely read newspapers of Karnataka.

     

  • Tahseen Shaukat joins Ten Sports Pakistan

    Tahseen Shaukat joins Ten Sports Pakistan

    MUMBAI: After almost a decade at the Karachi-headquartered Geo TV Network run by Independent Media Corp, Tahseen Shaukat – an executive familiar to many Indian broadcast and film professionals –  has joined Ten Sports Pakistan as country head. He took up his new position on 14 April and his mandate is to strengthen the sports network’s – which is part of India’s Zee Entertainment Group – objectives in Pakistan.

     

    His hire signals the Zee group’s firm intentions to get its sports broadcasting act together in the country.   Ten Sports – unlike many other Indian channels – does have legal landing rights in Pakistan, according to the Pakistan Electronic Media Authority website. It has broadcast rights to international cricket of four cricket boards along with other premium sports properties such as UEFA and WWE.  In India Ten Sports operates a bouquet of channels which includes Ten Sports, Ten Crickt, Ten HD, Ten Golf and Ten Action.

     

    Shaukat has a broad based experience in leading, setting up, managing opportunities and developing turnaround strategies on various media outlets. He started his career with E-Commerce Gateway as a strategic communications manager in 2002. He was there for a year before moving to Media Max – ARY Digital as manager marketing and then finally joined Geo TV Network, the television arm of Jang Group in 2004 as general manager – special projects.

     

    His stint with Geo TV network lasted for almost a decade where he left as executive director having handled  portfolios of business development, licensing, acquisitions and digital for the group and was responsible for steering network growth through licensing and collaborative ventures. He was instrumental with the launch and growth of Geo’s flagship sports channel Geo Super and driving the growth of two GECs through premium Turkish, Indian and foreign content including the recently launched format Pakistan Idol.

  • Big Magic gets Partha Dey to head non-fiction programming

    Big Magic gets Partha Dey to head non-fiction programming

    MUMBAI: Reliance Broadcast has made a new appointment to enhance its programming content on two of its channels- Big Magic and Big Magic Bihar & Jharkhand. Partha Dey will spearhead the national channel’s non-fiction programming content as the non-fiction head and also the entire programming portfolio for its regional channel as the creative and programming head.

     

    He will be involved in driving the regional channel’s performance by building on consumer insight for developing strong content.

     

    Dey will report to Reliance Broadcast TV business COO Lavneesh Gupta. Prior to this, he was heading the creatives and operation for the Mahuaa Network for six years including the planning, designing and launch of its three channels Pragya, Mahuaa and Mahuaa Bangla. He is a documentary filmmaker and has produced and directed documentaries, features and programming software for various agencies such as the Indian Air Force, ARC RAW and OHM-Holland and Doordarshan. 

     

    Commenting on his appointment, Gupta said “Partha’s vast experience and in-depth market understanding makes him an asset to the organisation. We are happy to have him on board and are confident of him leading Big Magic Bihar & Jharkhand through its next growth phase.”

     

    On his appointment Dey said, “Big Magic is among India’s most vibrantly growing brands, which has displaced long standing players in a very short period of time especially in the regional markets. The brand has an exceptional potential for growth and I look forward to working with the very talented team, to make this vision a reality.”  

     

    Currently the regional channel has just one non-fiction show Hindustan Ka Big Star and is looking at getting many more in the coming months.

  • NGC prez Howard T Owens to step down in June

    NGC prez Howard T Owens to step down in June

    MUMBAI: The National Geographic Channels US president Howard T Owens has decided to move on from the network post June, 2014.

     

    Owens has been with NGC since late 2011. He was previously a longtime exec at Reveille and an agent at William Morris Agency. During his tenure at NGC he launched the franchise series Wicked Tuna, Brain Games and Ultimate Survival Alaska, among others, and led the move into event productions like SEAL Team Six and The ’80s: The Decade That Made Us. He also introduced original scripted programming to the channels for the first time. Owens also served as president of Nat Geo Wild.

     

    “Howard injected remarkable energy into the National Geographic Channels brand,” said NGC US CEO David Lyle in a press statement. “He has been an invaluable member of our leadership team and we wish him nothing but the best in his future business endeavors.”

     

    “We have truly benefited from Howard’s zeal for bringing audiences innovative programming that underscores the uniqueness and depth of the National Geographic Channels brand,” added Fox Networks Group chairman and CEO Peter Rice. “From a creative and programming perspective, Howard’s work consistently broke new ground, and National Geographic Channels are uniquely positioned for the future as a result of his efforts.”

     

    Owens stated: “As I get ready for my next adventure I can’t help but reflect on what has been an incredible experience for me, both personally and professionally. National Geographic Channels have some of the brightest minds in the television business, and I’m proud of the work we have accomplished together – specifically in defining the National Geographic Channels as a destination for innovative, original and brand-defining creativity. I am deeply grateful to Peter, David and the entire National Geographic family for their collaboration and support, and look forward to working with them in new ways in the future.”