ITV

Category: People

  • Times Network international biz head Naveen Chandra moves on

    Times Network international biz head Naveen Chandra moves on

    MUMBAI: Times Network’s international business head Naveen Chandra has stepped down and will be serving his last day on 28 February. He confirmed the news to Indiantelevision.com.

    Chandra has been associated with Times Group for over 16 years. Previous to Times Network, he worked as head, strategy and new initiatives at Times Global Broadcasting Company (TGBCL), the parent company of Times Network. He joined Radio Mirchi as executive VP and National sales director.

    Overall, he has 25 years of experience in business operations, sales and marketing across broadcast tv, radio, print, internet and digital mediums across Indian and international markets.

    Before Radio Mirchi, he worked with Sesa Seat for over a decade.

    Earlier this year, Times Network has also appointed Amitabh Biswas as head of marketing, English entertainment cluster. In his role, Amitabh will lead the brand and media strategy for the Network’s English entertainment channels (Movies Now, Romedy Now, MNX and MN+) across platforms.

  • Times Network appoints Amitabh Biswas to Head Marketing for the English Entertainment cluster

    Times Network appoints Amitabh Biswas to Head Marketing for the English Entertainment cluster

    Mumbai: Times Network, India’s leading television broadcasting network, today announced the appointment of Amitabh Biswas as Head of Marketing, English Entertainment cluster. In his role, Amitabh will lead the brand and media strategy for the Network’s English Entertainment channels (Movies Now, Romedy Now, MNX and MN+) across platforms. Based in Mumbai, Amitabh will report to Vivek Srivastava, EVP and Head Entertainment Cluster, Times Network. 

    Commenting on the appointment, Vivek Srivastava, EVP and Head Entertainment Cluster, Times Network said, “I’m delighted to welcome Amitabh to the Times Network team.A versatile marketing professional with a proven track record in brand building along with a strong understanding of the business, Amitabhwill be an asset to our brands. I am confident that he will add tremendous value to our ambitious growth strategy in the English Entertainment segment.”

    Speaking on his new role, Amitabh Biswassaid,“It’s great to be back at the organization where I’ve grown through critical stages of my career.With continuous break-throughs in the media platforms, evolution of the connected consumer and tectonic shifts in their content appetite, I look forward to this opportunity to enter the next era with these leading entertainment brands.”

    With over 15 years ofbrand management experience acrossbroadcasting, advertising, telecom and management consulting, Amitabh joins Times Network after his entrepreneurial venture. In his previous roles, Amitabh has worked with Times Network’s news channels, RelianceInfocom, Star News, Bloomberg UTV,Star Majha, Star Ananda, where he focused on brand inventions, market research, strategic planning and operations.
     

  • TS Panesar, DSport’s business head, steps down

    TS Panesar, DSport’s business head, steps down

    MUMBAI: DSport business head TS Panesar has stepped down from his role, with 31 January set to be his last day with the organisation.

    Panesar’s exit comes at a time when the parent company of DSport’s, Discovery Communication India too national head. In the month of September, last year Karan Bajaj left the organisation.

    Panesar was responsible for content acquisition and monetisation for the company’s sports arm. He led the rights acquisition for Nidahas Trophy, South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Championship, Indian Fitness League, Poker Sports League, and Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) for the channel.

    The veteran executive has previously served as the CEO of Hathway Cable and Datacom’s video business and EVP distribution at Star India, where he handled direct to home (DTH) and digital addressable system (DAS) markets.

  • Network18 Digital CEO Manish Maheshwari departs

    Network18 Digital CEO Manish Maheshwari departs

    MUMBAI: Network18 Media & Investments Ltd’s Digital CEO Manish Maheshwari is set to depart from his role at the company.

    Maheshwari is currently serving his notice period, sources confirm in the organisation.

    Allied for more than two years with Network18, he had joined the company in April 2016. As Network18 Digital’s CEO, he managed the digital estates which included Firstpost, News18, Moneycontrol, CNBC-TV18, In.com and CricketNext.

    Maheshwari had worked with Flipkart before joining Network18 where he headed the merchant business and seller ecosystem.

    Previously, he also worked with Intuit as GM and managing director of txtWeb, also has the experience with companies such as McKinsey and Procter & Gamble.

  • Synamedia appoints former Envivio CEO, Julien Signes, to lead Video Processing business

    Synamedia appoints former Envivio CEO, Julien Signes, to lead Video Processing business

    LONDON – 9thJanuary 2018 – Synamedia, the largest independent video software and solutions company, has appointed video software compression pioneer and Envivio founder and CEO, Julien Signes, as Senior Vice President and General Manager of its Video Processing business unit.

    Julien will lead Synamedia’s video processing business as the industry transitions to software-based encoding for broadcast, as well as for OTT, using either on-premise or cloud-based solutions running on commodity hardware.

    Synamedia’s products are designed to reduce the cost and complexity of video services while extracting value from investments in existing headends, video data centers and content delivery networks. Offerings include patented low-latency ABR and Smart Rate Control that optimize IP video processing to match traditional broadcast quality, reliability and cost.

    Julien is one of the industry’s foremost experts on video processing. In 2000, he founded video compression specialist, Envivio. As CEO he led the company through private equity financing and a NASDAQ IPO to create the global leader in software-based video encoding. Ericsson acquired the business in 2015. Since 2017, Julien has been advising emerging video technology businesses on strategy, investment, and helping them scale to global markets. He has also provided advice to Atlantic Bridge, a global venture capital firm and one of the early shareholders in Envivio.

    Prior to Envivio, Julien worked at France Telecom (now Orange) leading a team that worked on the development of MPEG-4, resulting in seven key patents for virtual reality and 3D graphics support required for MPEG-4. He also led the development of the first end-to-end software MPEG-4 implementation.

    “As video consumes an increasing volume of the global IP traffic, successfully monetizing the opportunities around 4K and 8K requires a flexible video processing infrastructure that can scale cost effectively. Synamedia meets this demand thanks to its impressive portfolio of video processing solutions with market-leading encoding and transcoding technologies including those originally developed at Cisco, Scientific Atlanta and NDS as well as the cloud expertise developed at Cisco,” said Julien Signes, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Synamedia’s Video Processing Business Unit.

    Yves Padrines, CEO of Synamedia, said, “Julien is one of only a handful of people to combine technical prowess in video processing with acute business acumen. At Envivio, Julien spearheaded the evolution of video processing from a hardware focus to the software and cloud-based video businesses emerging today. His deep understanding of cloud architectures for video processing will ensure Synamedia customers have access to the most advanced techniques for fast, efficient delivery of both OTT and live TV to their subscribers.”

  • Khyati Shah appointed AVP marketing, programming at Star TV

    Khyati Shah appointed AVP marketing, programming at Star TV

    MUMBAI: Star TV Network has appointed Khyati Shah as associate vice president for marketing and programming. According to reports, she will be responsible for Star Utsav, the network’s free to air (FTA) channel and will be reporting to Star TV network SVP business head Yogesh Manwani.

    Prior to joining Star, Shah initiated her career with Beehive communications Pvt Ltd, in 2004, as an account executive. She was there with the company for over a year and later joined Triton communications as an account manager. After two years of her stint with Triton, she then made her move at Ogilvy and Mather, in 2007, as the group account manager.

    After spending two years with her previous organisation, she joined Grey Worldwide, in 2009, as an account director. Her portfolio also includes a stint with International Flavors and Fragrances, as fine fragrance and beauty care marketing manager, India. She was also the GM brand and marketing at Dainik Bhaskar Group for about four years.

  • ABP News elevates Avinash Pandey as CEO

    ABP News elevates Avinash Pandey as CEO

    MUMBAI: Avinash Pandey has been elevated as the chief executive officer of ABP News effective from 2 January 2019. Pandey is at the helm of the organization as the COO of ABP News and has been instrumental in growth of network over the last 5 years. 

    Commenting on his appointment as CEO, Pandey said, “I am delighted and thankful to the Board of Directors of ANN for bestowing such faith in me. ABP News has been consistently setting benchmarks in the media and entertainment industry for innovation and growth in India, which is one of the world’s fastest growing markets.The convergence of telecom, media and technology is one of the major drivers of the industry and India’s media ecosystem has reached an inflection point. Am looking forward to taking the channels to the next level in these exciting times.”

    An HBS graduate and post graduate in History, Avinash has over two decades of experience in news media, advertising, sales, distribution, marketing, and content creation. He has been with ANN since 2005, guiding the growth of advertising revenue and playing a key role in the expansion of the network's reach over the past decade.

    Commenting on the appointment, ABP Pvt. Ltd MD and CEO D.D. Purkayastha said, “Avinash has rendered invaluable services during the past 13 years of tenure in the organization.Wishing him success in the new role.We are proud of our success and look forward to the next chapter of growth under Avinash’sdynamic leadership.”

  • Kedar Teny joins Tilt Brand Solutions as Chief Strategy Officer

    Kedar Teny joins Tilt Brand Solutions as Chief Strategy Officer

    MUMBAI: The sharp & agile Marketing Consultancy, Brand Communication, Content & Production services company: Tilt Brand Solutions, has appointed Kedar Teny as Chief Strategy Officer.

    As a part of his role, Kedar Teny will be responsible for shaping the ‘Full Brained Thinking’ consulting practice, a first of its kind strategic planning approach in India. He will be leading a team of handpicked diverse practitioners of big data, digital media planning and behavioural science to combine and harness the power of left brain and right brain to provide holistic solutions to marketing problems.    

    Says Joseph George, Founder & MD, Tilt Brand Solutions “At Tilt he will be a part of the leadership team and will lead the Strategy function. In-line with hand-picking our talent at Tilt, Kedar embodies the Full-Brained Thinking approach through his vast prior experience and tenacity to deliver both, on business objectives as well as creative excellence”.

  • Dinesh Gautam joins ETV Bharat Network as news editor for five states

    Dinesh Gautam joins ETV Bharat Network as news editor for five states

    MUMBAI: Dinesh Gautam has joined ETV Bharat Network as News Editor for 5 States (MP,CG,Rajasthan,Bihar and Jharkhand). 

    Ramoji Rao, the media baron from South India, encouraged with the phenomenal success of leading Telugu news daily Eenadu and television channel ETV, is now gearing up to launch ETV Bharat. With the legacy of ETV , ETV Bharat is being billed as a unique offering of news and infotainment across 13 languages with the USP of hyper localized content.

    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 24×7 News, Live India and Sahara News Network. Prior to this, he was prime time anchor and Principal Correspondent at Zee news.Off late Dinesh has been associated with Moon Light Theaters as Creative Head and has written and directed many well recieved Plays which were presented by noted film maker Mahesh Bhatt.

    Creativity has propelled Dinesh into film writing as well, his film "Marksheet" is on the floor and will be released in 2019. Dinesh has also been a regular with All India Radio (AIR). Other then this Dinesh has been a guest faculty with IGNFA,IIFM and premier mass communication institutes. 

    From the political battle fields of different Lok Sabha and Assembly elections, to the heights of union and rail budget, Gautam, has covered almost every big story of Indian television news from the spot. He has anchored and reported for almost all the subjects relating to television news including external affairs, cricket series, Olympics, social and human issues and travelogues.

    On his appointment,Gautam said, “I am truly elated to be part of this behemoth news network, which is investing unlike any other media house in people and infrastructure keeping in view the future of news media. I see tremendous opportunities and areas where we can provide value to our audience.”

    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.

  • Star India moves Basant Dhawan from sports to entertainment biz

    Star India moves Basant Dhawan from sports to entertainment biz

    MUMBAI: Star Sports senior VP, brand solutions and sponsorships Basant Dhawan has been shifted to entertainment business by the group. He will be working as national agency head, which will contribute to the growth of the entertainment ad sales business.

    His earlier role included product and revenue strategy and sales functions. He was responsible for creating pricing and revenue assets, product packages along with sales for all new sports leagues that Star has been associated with, including Pro Kabaddi League (PKL), football leagues and Premier Badminton League (PBL). 

    Prior to Star India, Dhawan was the general manager-media in Vodafone India services. He has worked with auto, telecom, media and entertainment industries in his career.

    With over 25 years of experience, Dhawan is a result oriented marketing and business professional. His expertise lies in direct sales, distribution, product management, brand marketing media planning and buying to name a few.

    He started his career with Escotel as manager marketing and then moved to Airtel’s Landline business, Touchtel as corporate sales manager after 4 years. He has also worked with Reliance communication, Reliance Infocomm, Bharti Aitel and Aircel.

    In 2018, Star India launched two channels expanding its sports cluster named Star Sports 3 and Star Sports 1 Telugu. Star Sports 1 Kannada is also being tested and will launch before New Year.

    Under the new tariff order, Star Sports 1 Kannada (30 December) and Star Sports 1 Telugu (7 December) have been priced at Rs 19 for TV consumers.