Category: People

Disney restructures EMEA operations; appoints Tony Chambers as region president

Mumbai: The Walt Disney Co has announced the appointment of Tony Chambers as president, of its EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) operations, as part of a strategic restructuring of its entertainment businesses in the region. Chambers will report to Disney Entertainment co-chairmen Alan Bergman and Dana Walden, as well as ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro. Chambers will be vacating his current job as head of global theatrical distribution. Current EMEA president Jan Koeppen will step down in February as part of the transition.

In the new structure, several of the company’s lines of business in the region, including direct-to-consumer, ad sales, platform distribution, networks, local original content, studio marketing, theatrical distribution and sports will now report directly in to the global business leaders of those businesses, who will have P&L oversight for their respective regional businesses in EMEA.

The regional president – in this case, Chambers – will continue to be the company’s representative in the region and be responsible for consolidating strategic priorities and financials and coordinating teams at the regional level, leading local initiatives that span across businesses (excluding Disney Experiences), and overseeing shared service functions including human resources, communications, and finance.

“EMEA is a key region in terms of the success of our business globally, and as we realign our strategy for our entertainment businesses there, we are fortunate to transition between two fantastic leaders,” said Bergman, Walden, and Pitaro in a joint statement. “Tony Chambers is a seasoned senior executive who has a highly collaborative style and stellar reputation in EMEA and across the company. He brings a wealth of experience to this important new role. We look forward to continuing to accelerate our growth in EMEA and around the world, and we are immensely grateful for Jan’s exceptional contributions, which have made a meaningful and enduring difference to this team and the company during his tenure.”

Expressing his enthusiasm for the new role, Chambers commented, “I’m truly honored to be leading the world-class EMEA team in this new capacity. It’s a dynamic region that has gone through incredible, positive change over the past several years, and I’m very eager now to build on that momentum.”

Chambers, who is Irish, has been with Disney for over 30 years and has had a lot of experience in the EMEA having looked after studio sales and distribution, theatrical, home entertainment in various capacities for either Europe or the region.

Outgoing president Jan Koeppen reflected on his tenure, saying, “I’m grateful for the incredible six years I have had at Disney, working with some of the most talented and creative people in the industry through a period of profound transformation and growth as we launched and established Disney+ in the region. I leave with a full heart and with great pride in the exceptional Disney EMEA team.”

As Tony Chambers steps into his new role, Disney is set to announce a new global head of theatrical distribution in the near future, further strengthening its leadership team for continued growth and innovation in the region and beyond.

January 10, 2025
TV Today Network to turn off its Ishq 104.8 FM radio operations

MUMBAI: The TV Today Network has lost all the love it once had for the FM radio business under the brand of IshqFM (romantic love) 104.8 FM.

The company, on 9 January 2025, informed the Bombay stock exchange, that its board of has approved the closure of its IshqFM radio broadcasting operation, which includes three stations in Mumbai, Delhi, and Kolkata. The decision, announced at a board meeting on January 9, is subject to regulatory approvals and compliance requirements, with the shutdown expected to occur within one to six months.

The FM radio business contributed a turnover of Rs 16.18 crore in FY 2023-24, representing 1.7 per cent of the company’s total turnover for the year. However, it reported a net loss of Rs 19.53 crore during the same period.

In a statement, the board cited the challenging state of the FM radio industry and its evolving dynamics as key reasons behind the decision. “The board of directors considered it in the better interest of the company to close this business rather than continue operations,” the statement said.

The move aligns with TV Today Network’s strategic focus on its core media and broadcasting ventures, as the FM radio segment has struggled to remain profitable in a competitive and shifting landscape.

January 10, 2025
Enterr10 Television appoints Harshad Wadadekar as director, syndication & partnerships

MUMBAI: Content licensing and syndication runs through his veins and it is a skillset he has developed over the past 12 years of his career in media and entertainment. Harshad Wadadekar is continuing in that space, the only difference being that he will be doing it at the Manish Singhal promoted Enterr10 Television – the company which runs the No 1 Indian Hindi TV channel – as director – syndication & partnerships.

Wadadekar’s career encompasses significant roles in leading media organisations. He cut his teeth in the content licensing and syndication business at the Vivek Lath-Jimmy George owned GoQuest Media (June 2013-August 2022) where he rose to become general manager. He followed that with short stints at Sony Pictures Networks (August 2022-Septemebr 2023) and Shemaroo Entertianment (September 2023-January 2025. In the beginning of his career, Harshad worked a few months each at various companies like Indian Magic Eye, Reliance Entertainment, B4U Television either in production or assisting the syndication teams for Hong Kong Film Art.

Wadadekar holds a bachelor’s degree in mass media & production management and a master’s degree in business administration and a PGP in media and communication.

“I’m happy to share that I’m starting a new position as director – syndication & partnerships at Enterr10 Television,” Wadadekar announced on Linkedin.

January 6, 2025
Sony Pictures Networks India hires southern market expert Rajaraman Sundaram as head content strategy

MUMBAI: Sony Pictures Networks India or Culver Max Entertainment has hired veteran television executive Rajaraman Sundaram as head content strategy. One wonders what one should read into this hire by CEO Gaurav Banerjee.

Rajaraman has had deep exposure to the southern markets having worked at Vijay Television for almost 11 years in two phases January 2011-March 2006 and April 2009-January 2015. On both occasions, he was in the finance department.

He was given charge of Asianet between December 2017 and September 2021 first as executive vice-president strategy (south) and then as business head. He was given the responsibility of Colors (Tamil) between September 2021 and July 2023.

Rajaraman was then lured back to Disney Star India to work in the country manager India’s office between August 2023 and November 2024. In between, the qualified chartered accountant worked with NDTV Imagine for two years (May 2007-April 2009) as vice-president finance. Then he had a stint at Hathway Cable & Datacom as chief operating officer -video business between April 2015 and December 2017.

A question that needs answering is: in his new role, has Rajaraman been hired to take Sony into the southern regional language market? Or is he being brought in to help Gaurav Banerjee build the fictional slate of Sony Entertainment Television?

Gaurav Banerjee and his core management team know it. And he is not telling. As yet.

January 6, 2025
UFO Moviez promotes Siddharth Bhardwaj as CEO digital cinema

MUMBAI: UFO Moviez, a network for in-cinema advertising and digital cinema distribution, has announced change at the top.

Siddharth Bhardwaj, currently the group CMO and national sales head, has been promoted to chief executive officer of the digital cinema business. A qualified mechanical engineer with an MBA in marketing, Bhardwaj brings over 28 years of experience across various industries. Since joining UFO Moviez in 2012, he has been instrumental in establishing the company’s advertising revenue and advocating for cine-media as a preferred platform for impactful advertising.

In his new role, Bhardwaj will oversee the company’s digital cinema business, focusing on leveraging competitive advantages to drive growth. He will continue to report to UFO Moviez executive director & group CEO Rajesh Mishra.

“Siddharth’s experience and strategic acumen have been instrumental in shaping UFO Moviez’s success over the years,” said Mishra. “His elevation to CEO of the digital cinema business reflects our confidence in his ability to lead the company into the next level of growth. I am certain that under his leadership, UFO Moviez will continue to innovate and deliver value to all our partners and stakeholders.”

January 3, 2025
From Zee to the Sun, Pankaj Rathod joins as broadcast operations & eng head

MUMBAI: He’s decided to take a trip to the Sun – the Sun TV Network that is. Pankaj Rathod has hopped on to Sun TV as the head broadcast operations & engineering (Sun Neo | Sun Marathi | Sun Bangla). He joins Sun after nearly 13 years with Zee Entertainment Enterprises where he ended up as director- content operations, metadata syncing & publishing (Zee5) and music monitoring.

Prior to Zee, he was employed in three organisations for a year and some months each. First was with FoodFoodTV where he was head: scheduling/ sales ops/ traffic / presentation. Then he was head: operations & inventory planning at Mediasys Solutions. Third, he was manager sales operations at 9X and 9XM.

Before this he ventured into Siemens Information Systems where he offered broadcast TV solutions to television channels for a couple of years. A long five year run at Sony Entertainment Television resulted in him being promoted to sales coordinator, group executive – revenue management. He worked there for five years.

The BA in Economics’ first job in media was with Mid-Day Publications where he ended up as senior media executive in the advertising department after four years.

Expressing his happiness at joining Sun TV Pankaj said: “I have got the opportunity to build my expertise in broadcast operations (presentation, traffic & sales ops), inventory planning & management and evaluating & implementing – broadcast management system (BMS). My exposure in the print, broadcast and digital media has made me appreciate the nuances of the industry as a whole.”

December 31, 2024
Copyrights registrar grants copyright society status to Indian screenwriters rights body

MUMBAI: It took four years and a little more to come through, but it finally has. The Screenwriters Rights Association of India (SRAI) has got the go-ahead from the registrar of copyrights Unnat P Pandit on 30 December to operate as a copyright society under the Copyright Act, 1957. What that means is that it can collect royalties for dramatic works and literary works associated with dramatic works.

This means good news for story writers, scriptwriters, dialogue writers of television shows , OTT shows and films. They can now look forward to a future where they can get royalties for their works.

In fact, the Screen Writers Association (SWA) and its members were made aware of this through minister of commerce Piyush Goyal’s office which posted the SRAI certificate on social media late in the evening of 30 December.

The request for the registration was made to the registrar of copyrights (which falls under the department for promotion of industry and internal trade which in turn is a body under the commerce ministry) on 4 November 2020 by SRAI’s chairman Anjum Rajabali with Vinod Ranganathan as the CEO and veteran writers like Saket Chaudhary, Kamlesh Pandey, Rajesh Dubey, Vipul Shah, Mohammed Badiuzzaman (Zaman Habib), Javed Akhtar and Juhi Asheesh Malhotra as members of the governing body, according to documents available with indiantelevision.com..

The SRAI is a section 7 company and was set up in February 2016.

For the writing community, however, this is probably the first step of many to follow.

“What will follow are negotiations between the SRAI and the platforms – whether OTT or broadcasters or producers – on the rate of the royalties,” says an industry source. “How long this will take will depend on how reasonable both sides will be. However, when an agreement is reached, it will be succor for the writing community which has been deprived of royalties unlike their counterparts in other parts of the world.”

December 30, 2024
IBDF board admits new members; gets Kevin Vaz as president

MUMBAI: There’s quite a few new names sitting atop the Indian Broadcasting & Digital Foundation following its 25th annual general meeting held in New Delhi earlier today.

No surprises for guessing, Kevin Vaz who heads JioStar just below Uday Shankar was elected as the president. He is also the chairman of Ficci’s media and entertainment committee. The AGM also saw some newcomers make their way into the highest echelons of the advocacy body, the IBDF board: Prasar Bharati’s Gaurav Dwivedi, MMTV’s Jayant M. Mathew, TV Today’s Aroon Purie, JioStar’s Sumanto Bose, and Kairali TV’s John Brittas.

Other senior folks such as Culver Max Entertainment’s recently appointed CEO Gaurav Banerjee, R. Mahesh Kumar, along with India TV boss Rajat Sharma were elected as vice-presidents. I. Venkat was elected as the treasurer.

The list of some of the board members includes: Rajat Sharma, India TV, I. Venkat, Eenadu TV, Kevin Vaz, JioStar, R. Mahesh Kumar, Sun Network, Gaurav Banerjee, Culver Max, Nachiket Pantvaidya, Bangla Entertainment, Punit Goenka, Zee Media, Ashish Sehgal, Zee Entertainment, Sumanto Bose, JioStar and John Brittas, Kairali TV.

Rajat Sharma said that the IBDF will continue advocating for a regulatory framework that fosters innovation, supports creators, and ensures fair competition. “Together, we will drive the industry toward a sustainable and prosperous future,” he stated.

Kevin Vaz made his first address as the IBDF president highlighting that Indian content can gain international acclaim, further strengthening India’s soft power globally.

“As we increasingly embrace technology to scale up, it is imperative that we democratize content creation so that it is not demographically or geographically limited. While India consumes content from anywhere, driven by the proliferation of 5G, smartphones, connected TVs and better pay TV infrastructure, we must ensure that opportunities to create professional content from locations beyond the current hotspots is a viable future for the industry,” he emphasised. “The media and entertainment industry has a multiplier effect that extends to sectors like sports, creating significant opportunities for growth at scale. To ensure that this growth can be sustainable we need to look at business models rooted in equitable collaborations that foster value creation for all stakeholders across the ecosystem.”

December 20, 2024
MIP London announces David Beckham and Bela Bajaria as headliners

MUMBAI: MIP London, the international content and networking market (23-27 February 2025) from RX Global, is putting all its energy behind making its inaugural edition an even greater success.

It has announced that Netflix chief content officer Bela Bajaria and football club owner, entrepreneur, co-founder of content studio, Studio 99 and global brand ambassador David Beckham will be on stage at the IET Savoy Place in a special in conversation fireside chat.

“We promised the TV industry to deliver big moments and future-facing conversations at Mip London next February,” said director of MIP London and MIPCOM Cannes Lucy Smith .“Bela and David are hugely impactful figures culturally and globally each with great influence and unique perspectives on creating content and connecting with audiences and both with significant international platforms. It’s a privilege to welcome them both to the MIP stage in London.”

Collaborators on the Emmy award-winning documentary series Beckham, and with Studio 99 now in production on the highly anticipated forthcoming series following the story behind Victoria Beckham’s fashion business, the pair will share the main MIP London stage, and respective insights, on Tuesday 25 February.

Hosted at the Savoy Hotel and the IET London, MIP London is a new multi-genre international marketplace with an embedded future-facing conference that aims to deliver more business and opportunities during a key content week in the global TV industry calendar.

December 16, 2024
Sony’s Ravi Ahuja, Gaurav Banerjee and the art of winning

MUMBAI: That Sony Pictures Networks (SPN) president & chief operating officer Ravi Ahuja would come a-visiting Mumbai and the broadcast major’s Malad office was known to those in the trade because of a story that broke in the media. But what is not known to most is what transpired during the dapper executive’s whistle stop tour .

One of the activities conducted was a town hall, in which he and the SPN India managing director & CEO Guarav Banerjee (GB) sat down with SPN India chief human resources officer Manu Wadhwa for a fireside chat. The topic of discussion: Sony’s content first approach and SPN India’s pivotal role in SPN’s global strategy.

The key message GB sent out was that SPNI is a content-focused company with a goal to create hits that resonate with its audience.

And Ahuja had only one major message to give out: “Exceed expectations, take on new challenges, and build your skills and network – that’s the path to leadership!”

With that kind of a mandate, the rest of the GECs and sports channels had better watch out. For not only does GB have youth on his side, he also has a point to prove. Which he is known to do. Whilst, SPNI has been a profitable venture in India, it has lacked leadership in fiction.

Its non-fiction shows like Shark Tank India, KBC, Indian Idol have set new benchmarks with targeted audiences. But what has been missing is top rung family dramas, telenovellas, and thriller shows which have gathered viewers time and mindspace. Something the creative teams under GB have been working on silently and stealthily.

Expect some real action in this space, especially when leaders at rivals such as Colors and Star Plus are absorbed with the merger and Zee is just about gearing up with its new slate of productions.

December 16, 2024