ITV

Category: People

  • Viacom18 elevates Namrata Tata & Mandar Natekar

    MUMBAI: Viacom18’s national brands aimed at youth and the adult audience, viz. Hindi, youth, music and English entertainment under the leadership of Viacom18 COO Raj Nayak, has announced a rejig of its business and revenue leadership team.

    Namrata Tata, who was responsible for ad sales for English entertainment, will now take on the new and expanded role of head, ad sales – youth, music and English entertainment.

    Mandar Natekar, who was earlier heading Ad Sales – Youth and Music, will be moving into a business role and will be responsible for one of the newest ventures of the network, the MTV Music Project.

    Both Namrata Tata and Mandar Natekar will continue reporting into Ferzad Palia.

    Speaking on the management restructuring, Nayak said, “With the recent consolidation of Hindi, Youth, Music and English Entertainment clusters, Viacom18 is carving out anidentity for itself in the ecosystem that cohesively speaks to adults, youth and millennials, and create opportunities that are multi-dimensional and multi-platform. Namrata and Mandar have been instrumental to the success of the youth, music and English entertainment genres and as we look to dial up synergies and expand to capture white spaces within the genres, they are best suited to support Ferzad in further strengthening our influence in these genres.”

    Under Mandar’s leadership, the MTV Music Project will nurture an ecosystem of new and established artistes and create original music content. Namrata, who has been associated with Viacom18 for the past 6 years and has been instrumental in growing the revenues of the English Entertainment unit will now oversee sales revenue for the consolidated cluster of Youth, Music and English Entertainment.

    Speaking about the role expansions, Viacom 18 Youth, Music and English Entertainment head Ferzad Palia said, “In an increasingly dynamic environment, these genres need to look beyond traditional avenues to dial up growth. As a network, our leadership plays in the Youth, Music and English Entertainment genres have set the ground for us to explore synergies within them to dial up revenues. Namrata, with her understanding of the genres particularly and broadcast as a whole, is well equipped to lead the charge for maximizing the revenue opportunities for these related business units. Mandar, with his nuanced understanding of the youth and music genre – both from content and revenue POVs, is best suited to lead the MTV Music Project, as we look to explore our latest business opportunity in this genre. I am confident that we can further dial up our plays across these wide set of brands and solutions in this space.”

  • Media & entertainment GST issues to be addressed by central excise chief M Srinivas

    NEW DELHI: Central Board of Excise and Customs Commissioner M Srinivas will be the representative of the central government with issues relating to media and entertainment in the sectoral committee set up to ensure smooth implementation of GST by timely responding to the issues and problems of their respective Sectors.

    These sectoral Working Groups consist of Senior Officers from the Centre and the States.

    The Additional Commissioner for Sales Tax based in Pune, Mr Omnarayan Chainsukhji Bhangdiya, will represent the state governments on the Committee.

    According to the decision taken in the 14th Meeting of the GST Council on 18th-19th May in Srinagar, 18 Sectoral Groups have been constituted representing various sectors of the economy in order to ensure smooth roll-out of GST. The Committees will primarily interact and examine representations received from trade and industry associations/bodies of their respective sector; highlight specific issues for the smooth transition of the respective sector to the GST regime; and prepare sector specific draft guidance.

    In telecom, the central representative is CBEC Joint Secretary Amitabh Kumar while the state representative is Uttar Pradesh CCT Mukesh Kumar Meshram.

    For information technology and ITES, the central representative is CBEC Chief Commissioner M Vinod Kumar while the states will be represented by West Bengal CCT Ma Smaraki Mahapatra.

    CBEC Principal Commissioner D P Nagendra Kumar will represent the centre on the committee for services received and provided by the Government, while Bihar Additional Secretary (CT) Arun Mishra will represent the states.

    The officials of these Sectoral Groups will deal with the issues and the problems of the respective sector(s) they represent. Concerned industry Groups/Associations or even individual industry representative(s) may approach the respective Sectoral Group officers with their problems, if any, relating to GST implementation who, in turn, will try to guide and help them in resolving the same. This exercise will help in dealing with most of the sectoral problems and issues at the local/regional level.

  • Jatin Talwar comes back to Zee as head of international studio

    MUMBAI: Jatin Talwar seems to have completed a full circle coming back to the Zee family. Talwar, with 20 years of experience in TV, radio and films under his belt now, has taken over as the head of Zee Studios International.

    Prior to the current posting, Talwar was the senior business manager – Europe – theatrical distribution – Disney India Studios for eight years, before which he was the head – DTH operations at Belgium Satellite Service (BSS) for a year.

    Prior to BSS, Talwar worked as the distribution manager for B4U Network Europe Limited for six years.

    A science graduate from the Calcutta University, he started his career as the area manager of Zee Telefilms Limited, where he worked for four years.

  • Discovery International’s Jagdeep Singh joins AETN18 Media as revenue head

    MUMBAI: Jagdeep Singh, the advertising and sales professional with over 20 years of experience in TV, radio and Internet, has taken over as the revenue head – factual entertainment cluster at AETN18 Media.

    Based in Gurgaon, Singh will be the revenue head for History TV 18 as well as for FYI TV 18.

    Before joining AETN18, Singh was the national sales head – Discovery Kids, (Network Key Accounts and Digital) at Discovery Networks International for four years after joining in July 2012.

    Singh also served Discovery Networks as the region head – north & east and state tourism boards.

    An MBA in marketing from the University of Technology – Sydney, he had several successful stints at 93.5 Red FM as the regional business head – north & national head – events, Sony Pictures Networks as the region head north – English Cluster, Zee Telefilms as the region head – north, and Radio Mirchi as the group head – corporate sales.

  • MTV India appoints Ryan Mendonca as head of creative

    MUMBAI: MTV India has appointed Ryan Mendonca as the head of creative for its youth business which includes MTV and MTV Beats.

    The recipient of multiple wards including Cannes Lions and the Young Achievers Awards by The Advertising Club in 2009, Mendonca will report to Viacom18 Youth and English entertainment head Ferzad Palia.

    With more than a decade of experience in the world of advertising, prior to joining MTV, Mendonca worked with Ogilvy & Mather where he developed campaigns for iconic brands from Unilever, Cadbury, Perfetti and more. Known for being a man who lets his work speak for himself, over the years, Ryan has not only worked to deliver exemplary campaigns for clients but has also won accolades both nationally and internationally. As he takes over the Head of Creative for MTV, Ryan’s primary responsibility will be to lead the team at MTV and MTV BEATS to push the creative boundaries with brand communication across the MTV universe of TV, digital and branded content.

    Palia said, “People are the biggest asset of our business and we are continuously looking for talent that believes in the power of MTV and are also hungry to push the envelope and challenge status quos. Ryan is one of the hottest young creative minds in the industry today and going by the work that he has been doing, I believe he is the perfect fit for our multi-platform business, the MTV universe. Now, as we are gearing up for some exciting launches and with multiple new initiatives in the pipeline, Ryan is going to have his hands full at MTV. All I can say is, welcome to the madness Ryan!”

    Discussing his new role, Mendonca said, “Like several others from my generation, I grew up on MTV. It showed us the way, it was our voice. Now I join that voice again. It’s a privilege to be working alongside the brightest minds in the industry. I look forward to the ride.”

    During his stint with Ogilvy & Mather, Ryan handled creative duties for brands like Mondelez (Bournvita), ICICI Bank and BCCI (IPL) and has worked on several other brands such as Unilever (Dove, Ponds), Kodak, Perfetti, Star, Zigy, Apollo hospitals, Breakthrough Trust, Taj Holidays, World Gold Council and KFC amongst others. In his decade-long illustrious career, Ryan has not only made a name for himself as a creative hotshot but has also been the recipient of numerous awards. The Advertising Club of India named him Copywriter of the Year and Social Thinker of the year in 2009. His other laurels include being awarded at Cannes, The One Show, London International, Spikes Asia, WARC, Effies (India and Asia), AMEs and Young Guns to name a few.

  • Universal Music India promotes Vinit Thakkar as SVP

    MUMBAI: Universal Music India has announced that Vinit Thakkar has been promoted to senior vice president, Universal Music India. Universal Music India is part of Universal Music Group, the world leader in music-based entertainment.

    Currently Head of Digital, Licensing and New Business in India, Thakkar’s new position will see him take a greater role in the operations of Universal Music Group’s Indian and South Asian business across Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh. Reporting to Devraj Sanyal, Managing Director and CEO, Universal Music Group South Asia, Thakkar will be based in Mumbai.

    The new role will see Thakkar head up iconic label EMI Records India, a sub label of Universal Music Group in association with leading Bollywood film director Mohit Suri. The label acts as a platform for discovering, nurturing and breaking talent into the world of Bollywood film music.

    Of the promotion, Sanyal said: “I am thrilled to be promoting an executive of Vinit Thakkar’s stature and ability, his contribution over the last four years on both strategic and operational fronts has been extraordinary”.

    Thakkar comments: “I am delighted to be working alongside Devraj, whose vision for our region has no bounds and we look forward to further developing strategies with our brilliant team. India ranks highly amongst the world’s most creative and musically vibrant markets and with UMG’s global support, the coming years will be a thrilling ride.”

    Prior to joining UMG, Thakkar was Senior General Manager at Sony Music, handling P&L responsibility across Digital, Licensing and Publishing businesses. He previously worked with Titan and Citibank within their Sales and Marketing divisions.

  • Hinduja’s Ashok Mansukhani feted with 8th BCS Ratna ‘Lifetime Award,’ IMCL best MSO in prepaid service

    MUMBAI: Hinduja Media Group MD Ashok Mansukhani has been honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award in the media industry (individual category) at ‘8th BCS Ratna Awards’ held on 10 May, 2017.

    Hinduja Media Group was also awarded the Best MSO to start Prepaid services: IMCL (In Distribution Platform /MSO category) by the chief guest – minister of rural development, minister of panchayati raj and minister of drinking water and sanitation Narendra Singh Tomar.

    On receiving the award, Mansukhani said, “Our Nxtdgital HITS platform is a unique platform, which is catering to over 700 cities and over 900 micro head ends [COPES) and doing a yeoman service for the Rural India. The Rural and Semi urban India distribution is over 80% in this platform already, as we move we will continue to digitalis the rural cable industry and in this digital satellite cable platform the LCOs become their own owners and continue their entrepreneurship unlike in a classical MSO platform.”

    On behalf of the entire Broadcasting & CATV community, Hinduja group and Mansukhani were conferred with these awards by the recommendation of the Advisory committee and final selection by the Jury Members from the nominations received.

  • 21st Century Fox names Melody Hildebrandt global chief information security officer

    MUMBAI: 21st Century Fox has announced the appointment of Melody Hildebrandt to the role of Global Chief Information Security Officer. In this role, she will oversee the protection and risk management for enterprise communications, technologies and assets for 21CF. She joins the company from Palantir Technologies, where she served as executive vice president and directed the cybersecurity practice. Her appointment is effective 1 June 2017.

    Hildebrandt will report to Chief Technology Officer Paul Cheesbrough, who commented:

    “Melody is an accomplished executive who is a proven leader in the cyber security industry. Her expertise, when combined with our existing capabilities, will add significantly to such an important area for our business.”

    Since 2010, Hildebrandt has served as executive vice president of Palantir Technologies. She led the commercial business with particular expertise in the challenges of cybersecurity, financial crime, employee oversight, and litigation faced by premier global multinationals. She speaks internationally on risk issues at
events including the White House 
Cybersecurity Summit, Aspen Ideas Festival,
International Monetary Conference, Web Summit, Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association Annual Meeting, and the 
World Economic Forum Annual Meeting.

    Prior to that, she consulted to US and international governments with Booz Allen Hamilton where she designed military and strategy wargames. She also previously worked with the French Ministry of Education while living in France, where she also studied. She is the founder of Transcapitalist, a blog that explored the intersection of technology and free market mechanisms.

  • Star India’s Parul Sharma puts in her papers

    MUMBAI: Parul Sharma, after 14 years with Star TV in India, has decided to enter the next orbit of her professional as well as creative life. She however plans be be around in a different avatar. “I’m only leaving Star, but not communications,” she says.

    A rewarding career in broadcasting and media management has given her the privilege of interacting with opinion makers from politics, journalism, business, bureaucracy, academia, arts and entertainment. “They’ll continue to be an intellectual asset and inspiration,” she says.

    In a career spanning over two decades, she had the opportunity to be a part of the media evolution in India.

    As the Star TV corporate communications head and spokesperson, she was responsible for developing strategies for the group’s 40 properties. “A leadership role in India’s largest media network has taught me how innovative thinking alone could generate growth in these challenging times,” she says.

  • NewsX hires Times’ former exec Kukian as COO, to oversee entertainment & sports too

    MUMBAI: iTV Network, one of the fastest growing news networks, has appointed Ashit Kukian as the NewsX COO and iTV CRO – regionals, entertainment & sports businesses.

    In this new role, his responsibilities will include providing leadership and strategic direction to create new revenue generation opportunities in the market for iTV Network.

    iTV Network founder & promoter Kartikeya Sharma said, “Ashit is a seasoned and trusted leader who consistently delivers results. Ashit, with his in-depth understanding of the advertising ecosystem, shall be a great asset to leverage the revenue opportunities.”

    iTV Network CEO Varun Kohli said, “Ashit will bring his rich experience and expertise in growing iTV Network, and taking it to the next level. His understanding of the market will be of immense value to our network.”

    Kukian said, “What’s more exciting is the group is providing me an opportunity to handle new initiatives that have been planned for the near future.”

    Kukian was the president – revenue for Times Network. A part of the leadership team, Kukian strengthened the networks’ efforts in meeting its aggressive growth targets.

    Prior to joining the Times Network, Kukian was the president and COO at Radio City.

    Kukian, a Bachelor of Science from Mumbai University, invested 13 years at the Times Group managing various important roles. In his last assignment at the group, he was part of the core team that launched Zoom.