ITV

Category: People

  • DEN Networks appoints Rajendra Hingwala as additional independent director

    DEN Networks appoints Rajendra Hingwala as additional independent director

    MUMBAI: As per the recommendations of nomination and remuneration committee, the board of directors of DEN Networks has approved the appointment of Rajendra Dwarkadas Hingwala as an additional independent director of the company.

    According to the company's BSE filing, Hingwala has been named as a director for a period of three consecutive years with effect from 21 December 2019 to 20 December 2022.

    Hingwala is a chartered accountant and fellow member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI). He worked as director/ partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers Pvt Ltd (PWC) and retired therefrom after 38 years of service.

    “Hingwala is neither related to any director of the company, nor debarred from holding the office of director by virtue of any Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) order or any other such authority,” the press statement published on the bourses mentioned.

    Hingwala’s area of work included advising. He has an expertise on various provisions of double taxation avoidance agreements, direct and indirect tax implications of acquiring undertakings/ companies, structuring of business transactions, compliance of tax laws including litigation support and structuring of investment by foreign entities in India through various investment routes.

  • Amit Khanna and his history of entertainment

    Amit Khanna and his history of entertainment

    MUMBAI: When a veteran of the media and entertainment industry announces that he is releasing the definitive book on the history of the business, almost everyone is sure to attend. At least his peers. Amit Khanna – the former founder of Plus Channel and chairperson of Reliance Entertainment – launched his book Words Sounds Images – A history of media and entertainment in India – over the weekend in Mumbai’s Mehboob Studios. Published by Harpers Collins, it is all of 855 pages long, making for a heavy tome.

     

     

    And the heavweights of India’s business made it a point to attend. Javed Akhtar, Ronnie Screwvala, Mahesh Bhatt, Kabir Bedi,  Karan Johar, Mukesh Bhatt, Kiran Shantaram, Dheeraj Kumar, Sudhir Pandey, Kunal Dasgupta, Pradeep Guha, Boney Kapoor, Rishi Kapoor, Avtar Gill, Bijon Dasgupta, Bharat Kapadia, Manmohan Shetty, Ila Arun, Kumar Taurani,  Neeraj Roy, Krishan Chopra, Sidesh Inamdar, Ameen Sayani, Ficci’s Leena Jasnani, among many others.

     

     

    During a panel discussion on stage, hosted by Karan Johar, Ronnie, Mahesh, Javed, and Sudhir reminisced about their relationship with Khanna over the past decades. All of them eulogised and praised his pioneering initiatves, and the fact that he was most suited to write the book and that he had predicted how the world has evolved a decade or so ago.

     

     

    Words Sounds Images – costing all of Rs 1,499 –  covers entertainment from the times of the Indus Valley Civilisation to modern India.  It is a good reference book for students, educationists of the media and the entertainment business or even industry professionals wanted to refresh their minds about tentpole moments of its history. Of course these moments have been curated by Khanna himself.

     

     

    What’s interesting about the book is the emphasis it has paid on regional television and cinema. There’s detailing, which further enhances its reference-ability. We at indiantelevision.com give it a thumbs up!

     

  • BBC Global News ropes in Rahul Sood as south Asia, India MD

    BBC Global News ropes in Rahul Sood as south Asia, India MD

    MUMBAI: The Beeb has a new Indian boss. In an announcement earlier today, BBC Global News stated that former NDTV India professional Rahul Sood will be taking over as its managing director for India and south Asia, come January 2020. Sood will have responsibility for leading the strategic growth of commercial activities across the business which is the International commercial news, sport and features arm of the BBC.

    In fact, a new position has been created for the media vet, reflecting India and the wider region’s position as a key market for BBC Global News. India is BBC News’ largest overseas market, with an audience of over 50 million people. Its India bureau is one of BBC’s largest outside the UK, becoming a video, TV and digital content production hub for the whole of South Asia.

    Sood will report to global EVP marketing and distribution Chris Davies and SVP commercial development, Asia and ANZ Alistair McEwan. He will assume management of the commercial sales teams across the region with distribution head Sunil Joshi, and advertising sales director Vishal Bhatnagar, reporting directly to him. 

    Sood has had experience at NDTV (New Delhi Television Ltd) where, as sales and business development head he successfully launched NDTV channels across linear and digital in over 70 countries. He previously worked for Fox International channels in Singapore, monetising and expanding their south east Asian markets, and started his media career at Turner Broadcasting.

    BBC Global News SVP commercial development, Asia & ANZ, Alistair McEwan says: “We are delighted to be welcoming Rahul to the new post of managing director of BBC Global News, India and South Asia. He brings a wealth of knowledge and experience which is sure to add great value as we continue to realise our significant ambitions in the region, bringing together the expertise of our current teams on the ground.”

    Says Sood: “Working for the BBC in the current news environment is a privilege. My goal will be to further develop the BBC’s presence and profit across the region, ensuring audiences across India and South Asia can benefit from the BBC’s impartial, trusted journalism.”

  • K Madhavan to head all Star TV businesses; Uday takes charge of Hotstar

    K Madhavan to head all Star TV businesses; Uday takes charge of Hotstar

    MUMBAI: Ten years ago when Uday Shankar was looking for a professional to be his deputy in Star India, he looked outside and roped in Sanjay Gupta a long term Hindustan Lever professional.

    Circa 2019,  Shankar did not look for an external executive to replace Gupta who is slated to move onto Google as its country head close to the end of this month.

    Rather, Shankar has gone in for an internal resource in the shape of K Madhavan who has successfully built up the regional language network for Star India. Apparently, Shankar in an email to staffers today announced – in a move which we suspected would happen – that Madhavan would be given oversight of the entire Star TV channel bouquet. Shankar said that all those previously reporting to Gupta would now report to Madhavan.

    Shankar on his part will temporarily take on complete oversight of the rapidly growing streamer Hotstar. How long this will continue is not clear.

    Hotstar has been headless since last year when Ajit Mohan decided to move to Facebook India as its India head.  The chief product head Varun Narang had temporarily taken on its responsibility since then.

  • BARC India appoints Mahendra Upadhyay as chief information officer

    BARC India appoints Mahendra Upadhyay as chief information officer

    MUMBAI: Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC India), the largest TV measurement company in the world has appointed Mahendra Upadhyay as the chief information officer.

    Upadhyay is a seasoned professional with 18 years of experience in telecom, banking, retail and media & advertising industries with expertise in data value chain i.e. Ingestion-Insights-Analytics-Auto AI. He has expertise in end-to-end consumer life cycle management using advanced analytics and marketing interventions.

    “We are happy to welcome Mahendra on board as the chief information officer, BARC India. With his mix of leadership roles across industries, he brings a diverse cross-industry perspective that we will be able to leverage immensely for the benefit of our clients and for the industry,” said BARC India chief executive officer Sunil Lulla.

    In the past, Upadhyay has worked with Mindshare, Ericsson, SAS Institute, Reliance Retail, Neural Technologies, Reliance Infocomm and Bharti Telenet.

    Commenting on his new role, Upadhyay said, “I am absolutely delighted about joining the world’s best television measurement company BARC India as chief information officer. Looking forward to my new role and taking the company to the next level along with my team.”

  • Optimystix appoints Rajesh Bahl as director and group CEO

    Optimystix appoints Rajesh Bahl as director and group CEO

    MUMBAI: Optimystix, the leading production house in both Fiction and Non-Fiction programming, appointed Rajesh Bahl as the Director and Group Chief Executive Officer.

    In his role as Director & Group CEO, Rajesh will not only be responsible for Optimystix’s growth strategy but will also help the company accelerate its next phase of growth and transformation from a bespoke TV production company to creating and producing digital content and venturing into feature film business.

    "Till date our focus as a company has been in growing our TV production business which has shown credible growth YOY and now to create  more significant value and harness the growth across 3 big content spaces i.e. TV, OTT & Feature Films we need someone to guide us strategically and be the torchbearer of our next round of growth. In order to reimagine and reinvent Optimystix I have invited Rajesh Bahl to lead this initiative for us," said Optimystix Entertainment chairman and managing director Vipul. D. Shah.

    Bahl is a senior M&E & Digital business leader with over 20 years of experience of being at the helm in globally acclaimed media companies, namely Times Group, Star TV, Eros International, Universal Music Group and Sony Music, and has been instrumental in establishing their digital & content businesses.

    “I am very excited to join hands with Optimystix at this time when the demand for premium content is on massive upsurge and is being consumed by various audience segment across screens, across platforms, across languages, across genres and across story-telling formats which in turn is fuelling demand from the TV broadcasters, OTT services, and feature film business alike. This presents a great opportunity for Optimystix to expand businesses furthermore”, said, Bahl.

    Before joining Optimystix Rajesh Bahl was the Founding CEO, of Times Studio, A Times of India Group (BCCL) entity where he played a pivotal role in setting up Times Studio business. Under his leadership Times Studio grew from 0-60+ member team, produced few marquee original shows for MX Player and have executed many digital video campaigns for multiple brands and advertisers.

    In his previous stint as the COO at Eros International, he overlooked the development and digitization plans of the digital arm of Eros International. He successfully built and launched www.erosnow.com, India’s first premium OTT service and was involved in driving the product, content & marketing strategy for the same apart from being responsible for feature film marketing. 

  • Akanksha Goyal, Brand Manager, Zee Media, nominated at Mobby’s Award

    Akanksha Goyal, Brand Manager, Zee Media, nominated at Mobby’s Award

    MUMBAI: Akanksha Goyal, Brand Manager at Zee Media has been recognized as one of the ‘50 Most Influential Strategy Leaders’ at the Mobby’s Award for Excellence in Mobile, Entertainment & Digital Technology.

    The event was held on November 21, 2019 at Taj Lands End, Bandra, Mumbai by World Marketing Congress and CMO Asia.

    Akanksha has more than 7 years of diversified experience and previously has worked for brands like Discovery Communications, Coca-Cola and Karbonn Mobiles. She has an expertise in conceptualizing and delivering promotional strategy with limited resources and constraints along with conceptualizing TVCs and product launches. She has spearheaded multiple activation campaigns cracking the key to consumer connect.

    She is a Management Graduate from IMT Ghaziabad along with a B. Tech from IP University.

  • ZEEL reconstitutes its board even as chairman Subhash Chandra resigns

    ZEEL reconstitutes its board even as chairman Subhash Chandra resigns

    MUMBAI : The board of ZEE Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel) , during the meeting held today, completed the process of reconstitution of the board and appointed three new independent directors in lieu of two independent and one nominee Director of Essel Group, namely Niharika Vora, Sunil Sharma and Subodh Kumar, respectively. The newly appointed independent director include: former bureaucrat (once finance secretary) and public sector professional R Gopalan, retired IPS professional Surendra Singh, and art entrepreneur Aparajita Jain.

    The founder of ZEE and the pioneer of India's private satellite television industry, Subhash Chandra, during the meeting, expressed his intent to step aside as chairman, which he founded way back in 1992. The board accepted his resignation with regret and applauded his vision for the Company and the industry at large.

    While Chandra stepped aside from the chair, he also expressed the desire to step aside as a board member. However, the entire board requested him to not only continue as a board member but also to be the 'mentor' to the executive management and its MD & CEO.

    The reconstitution of the board was to strengthen and induct independent members with varied experiences to build value and provide a strong signal to the existing and new institutional investors who have recently reposed their faith in the intrinsic value of the company, by investing Rs. 4770 crore. The reconstituted board consists of six independent directors and two members from the Essel Group.

    Besides, M Lakshminarayanan has resigned as Chief Compliance Officer and Company Secretary. In his place, Ashish Agarwal has been appointed as the Company Secretary of Zee with effect from 26 November.

    Ashish , a Commerce Graduate and LLB from MDS University, Ajmer, is a Compliance professional with rich experience of over 20 years, including five years with Essel Group.

  • German broadcaster DW announces strategic expansion in India

    German broadcaster DW announces strategic expansion in India

    MUMBAI: Germany’s international broadcaster DW is significantly expanding its presence in India. This week Director General Peter Limbourg is traveling to New Delhi and Mumbai to negotiate and sign agreements with private and state-run broadcasters.

    DW also plans to open a new bureau in New Delhi shortly. In addition to maintaining a network of freelance correspondents across the country, a permanent presence in India will bring DW closer to both the audience and the story and make reporting more substantive and relevant.

    Director General Limbourg said that there are good reasons for DW‘s South Asia strategy: “DW currently has 31 million weekly user contacts in all of Asia but we see a far greater potential for the continent, especially for India. We offer content in eight Asian languages, and of course Hindi is one of them. In order to reach more users here, we must make sure to provide content which is really relevant to them.”

    “With nearly 900 TV channels, hundreds of 24-hour news channels in several languages and digital media growing at an amazing speed every year, India offers vast opportunities and challenges for journalism,“ Limbourg said.

    “In South Asia, like anywhere else, our programming aims to give all parts of society and all political parties equal coverage,“ Limbourg said, adding that “in fast-changing social and political times which in many ways are linked to a rapid technological transition, we are ready to meet the high expectations which people have of the media. They want news but also motivating stories and educational programs. And there is a demand for high-quality ‘infotainment’ formats which carry a serious message.”

    For DW, co-productions have become one major success factor. In India, two examples are TV magazines Eco India and Manthan, produced by DW and local partners. Eco India looks at the energy of tomorrow, alternative resource management, the future of mobility, urbanization, biodiversity, conservation, sustainable consumption, the effects of climate change, inequality and innovative technologies. In addition to English, Eco India has also been broadcast in Hindi since September.

    Manthan is a science and technology format in Hindi. It focuses especially on latest developments in Europe and comments on the differences between Germany and India.

    With currently 197 million weekly user contacts worldwide, DW has seen significant growth over the last year. Between August 2018 and August 2019, the number of users has increased significantly, growing by more than 20 percent.

    The development is primarily attributable to a significantly higher number of online visits. Around 61 million people regularly use DW services online. Video is important above all: roughly three-quarters of the hits are generated by videos. The use of social media platforms also increased in other languages, most strongly on YouTube. DW’s TV-channels continue to be highly popular, the number of television viewers rose by ten million to over 99 million per week.

    Founded in 1953, Germany’s international broadcaster DW offers TV-channels in English, German, Spanish and Arabic. Radio and online content is available in 30 languages. Programs include news, features, talk formats and documentaries covering everything from politics, business and science to arts, culture and sports. DW promotes exchange and understanding between the world’s cultures and provides access to the German language.

  • Dinesh Gautam joins TV9 Bharatvarsh as sr executive editor

    Dinesh Gautam joins TV9 Bharatvarsh as sr executive editor

    MUMBAI: Dinesh Gautam has joined Associated Broadcasting Company (TV9) as senior executive editor last month. Till recently Gautam was serving iTV Network as executive editor for the national news channel and was heading MP CG news channel as well. He anchored the primetime show at 9 pm. As the head of the MP-CG channel, he got the brand placed amongst the top 5 channels from number nine within 3 months of taking charge. This was without any additional distribution spent and limited resources, unlike its competitors.

    Commenting on this Gautam Said, "iTV has been a beautiful journey with immense possibilities and now I look forward to the next opportunity with great enthusiasm."

    Prior to joining iTV, Gautam was with ETV Bharat as editor for its five news channels of the Hindi heartland. Gautam has been in the TV news industry for two decades. He has been rated best anchor of the Hindi news industry and is also a recipient of the “NT Award” for the year 2012. He has also worked at senior editorial positions in Live India and Sahara News Network. Prior to this, he was prime time anchor and principal correspondent with Zee News.

    Gautam has also been associated with Moon Light Theaters as creative head and has written and directed many well-received plays which were presented by noted filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt. Creativity has propelled Dinesh into film writing as well, his film 'Marksheet' is on the anvil. He has also been a familiar voice of All India Radio (AIR). Other then this he has been a guest faculty with IGNFA, IIFM and premier mass communication institutes.

    Hailing from Madhya Pradesh, Gautam is a Post Graduate in Mass Communication from IIMC, New Delhi, and holds a Master’s degree in Science as well.