ITV

Category: People

  • Viacom18 elevates Raj Nayak as COO, restructures leadership team

    MUMBAI: As it steps into the 10th year of its existence, Viacom18, one of India’s fastest growing media and entertainment companies, has announced an organisational rejig that aims to dial up synergies across the multiplatform network that houses iconic brands.

    Led by the elevation of Raj Nayak to Chief Operating Officer, Viacom18, the restructuring exercise is aimed at making the organisation future-ready as it enters its next growth phase. With this move Viacom18 has consolidated its national brands aimed at youth and adult audiences viz. Hindi, Youth, Music and English Entertainment offerings under the leadership of Raj.

    The role of Ferzad Palia, Head – Youth, Music & English Entertainment has been further expanded, to include two new businesses as the network dials up its content & music offerings. ‘Brand Studio’ will create branded content and white label solutions for partners, along with original commissioned content. ‘MTV Music Project’, will nurture an ecosystem of new and established artistes and create original music content. This is in addition to Ferzad’s existing portfolio that includes MTV, MTV Beats, COLORS Infinity, Comedy Central & Vh1.

    With a clear focus on strengthening its rural presence, Viacom18 has also elevated Anuj Poddar from his current role at COLORS Marathi and COLORS Gujarati to lead the rural expansion as Head – Rural Business, including Rishtey Cineplex.

    Saugato Bhowmik, Head – Viacom18 Consumer Products & Integrated Network Solutions, will continue to drive the efforts towards building homegrown experiential IPs and a robust consumer products business.

    Ferzad, Anuj and Saugato will report to Raj Nayak.

    Underlining its belief in the growth potential of regional broadcast entertainment, Viacom18 has entrusted the responsibility of its existing regional channels (COLORS Kannada, COLORS Super, COLORS Marathi, COLORS Bangla, COLORS Odia, COLORS Gujarati) and the soon to be launched COLORS Tamil with Ravish Kumar, Head – Regional Entertainment, Viacom18, thereby combining all its regional offerings under one roof to ensure greater focus.

    Viacom18 is the leader in the kids entertainment category with the No.1 Kids entertainment channel Nickelodeon and a strong portfolio comprising Sonic, Nick Jr and Nick HD+. Under the leadership of Nina Elavia Jaipuria, Head – Kids Cluster, Viacom18, the network will be growing its presence in the ‘kids ecosystem’ as it plans to enhance its repertoire of homegrown content and drive up its consumer connect with live events, experiential touchpoints and learning initiatives.

    Viacom18 Digital Ventures, with Gaurav Gandhi at its helm as COO, will be leading the network’s digital foray with its flagship VoD service, VOOT. In its second year of operations, VOOT will look to grow its portfolio, bolster its content catalogue, collaborate with like-minded partners and launch segmented offerings.

    The network’s film studio, Viacom18 Motion Pictures, led by its COO, Ajit Andhare, will continue to create content-driven cinema, while ramping up its regional play, in line with the network’s enhanced focus on regional entertainment.

    Raj, Ravish, Nina, Gaurav and Ajit will continue to report to Sudhanshu Vats, Group CEO, Viacom18.

    “Viacom18’s DNA has enabled it to pre-empt market shifts and adopt unconventional approaches to address conventional business challenges. Since inception, our topline has grown 40x and channel count has grown over 12x while being PAT profitable. Today, Viacom18 has 5 diverse lines of business – in addition to a core broadcast offering it now has a strong presence in digital, filmed and live entertainment along with a fast-growing licensing and merchandising operation. None of this would have been possible without our most valuable asset – our team. Our endevaour has always been to build a future ready organisation with distinct capabilities and a distinctive culture with an emphasis on developing internal talent. This new structure will power us as we enter our next growth phase,” said Sudhanshu Vats, Group CEO, Viacom18.

    While congratulating Raj Nayak on his new role, he said, “Raj is one of those rare leaders in our industry who possess a sharp business acumen coupled with a nuanced understanding of what makes brands iconic. I am confident that he will be able to take this portfolio of brands to even greater heights as he leverages deeper synergies in his new role.”

    Viacom18 has announced that the new leadership structure will be operational with immediate effect.

  • Why Kross Pictures’ South Korea CEO Thomas Kim is happy with India

    MUMBAI: He is a South Korean who is plugging away with his ambition to leave his imprint on both, Bollywood and Indian television. And that’s one of the reasons why Kross Pictures CEO Thomas Kim set up an office in Mumbai in 2016, adding to his Los Angeles and Seoul outposts.

    From the company’s stable emerged the Amitabh Bachchan-Nawazuddin Siddique-starrer the critically acclaimed Te3n last year, which was adapted from the South Korean film Montage.

    Kim is excited about his next project for the Indian market: a web series for Amazon Prime called Suspect X, which is based on the Japanese author Keigo Higashino’s The Devotion of Suspect X. Kim acquired the film production rights from the author in 2011 and even signed a co-production agreement with Balaji Motion Pictures in 2013.

    However, that has been put on the backburner. “Earlier we thought to do this as a feature film but then this opportunity came so we are now actively developing the extended version of this script,” says Kim.

    Right now his goal is to get the third novel of the Detective Galieo series on the production floor. “We plan to start shooting Suspect X later this year. It is going to be shot like a long movie.”

    Why did he choose to go with an SVOD service like Amazon Prime and not a TV channel for Suspect X for his second Indian foray?

    Kim explains: “Indian channels are more conservative. They are less active in trying out different things and budgets are lower than we are used to at international levels. The kind of content we are bringing requires certain level of budgets. We were working with a big Hollywood production company and we were trying to create the Indian version of the show and we presented this idea to all the major GECs — Sony, Zee and Star. They all liked it but balked at writing the cheque that it required. On the television side, I think it will take a longer time, but on films and OTT side it’s possible.”

    However, that’s not all. Kim is in production pitches with both general entertainment channels and other OTT services such as Hotstar and ViuClip for other shows. Altogether, he has 15 projects lined up for the Indian market, a mix of TV shows for TV channels and OTT services and films for theatrical release.

    Says he: “We are planning to bring Korean stories so that these could be ‘Indianised’ by Indians for the Indian viewers. We will be teaming up with a number of talented people and companies. Directors such as Sujoy Ghosh, an actor like Amitabh Bachchan, companies like Phantom and Amazon to name a few.”

    Amongst the projects which he expects to announce soon figure two South Korean film adaptations for India with big stars — Miracle in Cell No 7 and Miss Granny. Additionally, he’s working on taking Indian content overseas as well. Recently, Kross Pictures flashed the top dollar and bought the rights to Queen and Kahani, and is planning to have them remade in Korea as well soon. And, he is also looking out for Indian TV shows that can travel.

    What is driving this South Korean to lay such a heavy emphasis on Korean and Indian content and work as a bridge between the two nations’ film and TV creative industries?

    “The Indian market is huge; it comprises half or our global portfolio, and hence it is a very important market for us. In the long term, I think it can be bigger than Korea,” he elaborates. “Both countries being Asian… can come up with stories that can resonate with viewers and film-goers. The reason Indian-South Korean exchange has not been too big is that so far the two countries haven’t been active in exchanging cultures. Starting now, I think it will grow in future and soon we will see more and more Korean films remade in Bollywood and vice versa.”

  • Viacom names Julia Phelps as SVP comm & culture

    MUMBAI: Viacom Inc. has announced that Julia Phelps has been promoted to Senior Vice President, Communications & Culture. In the newly created role, Phelps will serve on the company’s senior executive team and lead corporate communications, corporate marketing and culture. Most recently, Phelps led communications for the company’s international business, Viacom International Media Networks (VIMN).

    She will continue to report to Viacom president and CEO Bob Bakish.

    “Julia has been an indispensable partner for me in developing and articulating Viacom’s strategy, while keeping us true to our values and responsive to our employees,” said Bakish. “It is absolutely critical that both our external stakeholders and our people understand and embrace our new vision for Viacom, and Julia’s insight, empathy and forward thinking make her uniquely suited to this task.”

    In her role, Phelps will oversee Viacom’s Corporate Communications, Corporate Marketing, Corporate Responsibility and Special Events teams, as well as its internal creative agency, Catalyst. Most recently, she served as Executive Vice President of Communications at Viacom International Media Networks (VIMN), where she led VIMN’s internal and external communications efforts for Viacom’s international brands, including MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, BET, Paramount Channel, VH1, COLORS and Channel 5. Previously, Phelps served as Senior Vice President of Corporate Communications for VIMN and as VP of Corporate Communications for Viacom.

    Phelps joined Viacom in 2005 from New York-based agency DeVries Public Relations. A native of Canada, she earned a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Victoria in British Columbia, and an M.S. in Strategic Communications from Columbia University.

  • Fox Asia appoints Mike Rich as EVP, Dawes departs

    MUMBAI: Fox Networks Group (FNG) Asia has named media the industry veteran Mike Rich as the executive vice president, advertising sales & content partnerships for Asia Pacific and the Middle East. The company also announced that Simeon Dawes, who has been keen to focus full-time on his other business interest, will leave the group by the end of April.

    In this enhanced role, Rich will lead teams across the region to identify new revenue streams for FNG Asia and its content partners, and to further strengthen FNG’s position as a leader in advertising innovation. He will report to Fox Network Groups Asia president Zubin Gandevia.

    Rich has more than 25 years of media and marketing experience in agency and client roles, and he brings to FNG Asia a keen understanding of the content and media industry across the US, Europe and Asia. He most recently served as Global President of Publicis Media’s Content Ventures division. Prior to that, he was CEO of GroupM Asia’s content business. Rich has also consulted for a multitude of major rights owners.

    Rich’s appointment follows the earlier hiring of Italo Zanzi as executive vice-president and managing director for Fox Sports as the group has been working to strengthen its sports, advertising sales and content creation teams across the region.

    Gandevia said, “With an incredible portfolio of channel brands and the world’s greatest television programming, Fox has a unique opportunity to leverage its assets to expand and develop existing and new revenue streams in Asia. Simeon has been a key figure in building the Fox business in Asia and I want to thank him for everything he has done for us and wish him all the best. At the same time we are delighted that Mike is joining us to contribute his wealth of experience with brands, agencies and content to help us continue delivering innovative solutions and ignite our full commercial potential.”

    Rich said, “The quality of global TV has never been better, and Fox is perfectly positioned to drive greater outcomes for consumers and commercial partners alike. Fox and I have ambitious plans in the content creation and digital distribution arenas, and I could not be happier to join such a forward-thinking global media business.”

    Dawes added, “The time is right for me to focus on my other business interest as I’m able to leave Fox knowing that with Mike and Italo the right people are in place. For the past seven years I have also had an interest in building a health and nutrition distribution business and now I can turn my full attention to leading and growing that, something I’ve been keen to do for some time.”

  • Keshet Asia establishes office in India, appoints Arpit Agarwal & Mihir Karlekar

    MUMBAI: Keshet Asia, the Hong Kong-based subsidiary of Keshet International (KI), has expanded its footprint in India with two major hires and establishing an office in Mumbai.

    Arpit Agarwal will lead the Indian operation on the ground as director, India and SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) reporting to Gary Pudney, head of Asia. Mihir Karlekar joins Agarwal as the senior sales manager, India and SAARC.

    Together, they will seek to increase the volume of KI’s scripted and non-scripted formats being adapted for the Indian audience, and uncover local IP for international distribution. They will also co-develop with Indian creators and begin to lay the foundations for an eventual local production business.

    The Indian operation has been established following the launch of two flagship KI properties in the country; the epic 110-episode adaptation of ‘Prisoners of War’ (Bandi Yuddh Ke) which aired on Star Plus and was the no.1 trending topic on Twitter during its premiere; and the country’s first-ever live voting talent show ‘Rising Star’ which is airing on Viacom18’s Colors, and peaked with a rating of 2.4 in prime time. With live voting powered by the Screenz Platform, the Color’s app garnered 3.6 million downloads at launch, and is steadily rising as the format sets the bar for innovation in TV engagement.

    Pudney said, “India is a vibrant market in which we see huge potential. The success of ‘Prisoners of War’ and ‘Rising Star’ has demonstrated our catalogue’s ability to resonate with local viewers, but as well as selling more content into the region, we are equally keen to begin producing and acquiring IP. With Arpit and Mihir on board, we feel we have the right people in place to capitalise on our success and drive the business forward.”

    Agarwal said, “Keshet International has made rapid inroads into the Indian market in the last year and I’m hugely excited at the prospect of further expanding its footprint in the SAARC region – home to over a billion eager TV viewers.”

    With more than 20 years’ experience, Agarwal joins Keshet Asia from Singaporean distribution and production company Bomanbridge Media where he was the director of business development & sales across south Asia and licensed more than 450 hours of finished tape and formats in the region. Prior to Bomanbridge Media, Agarwal was the business head at general entertainment channel Sahara One where he commissioned two major prime-time drama series. Agarwal also headed operations at FremantleMedia India, and was an intrinsic part of the launch of The X Factor India, and the roll-out of Indian Idol V and India’s Got Talent III among others.

    Karlekar joins Keshet Asia from consumer electronics conglomerate LeEco where he was the senior manager – content business development and strategic alliances, a role which saw him closing partnership deals with leading domestic and international OTT platforms. Prior to this he was the commercial manager, acquisitions at Zee Entertainment, where he managed all linear/non-linear content acquisition for three OTT platforms, FTA and niche channel clusters and format licensing for GECs, before stepping up to head of commercial at Zee TV’s digital convergence arm.

  • Arre appoints Viacom18’s Jaideep Singh as director

    MUMBAI: Entertainment business veteran and former Viacom18 Integrated Network Solutions head, Jaideep Singh has been roped in by Arré as a director on its management team. Singh will guide the platform’s monetisation drive/strategy, launch Arré’s music vertical and contribute his experience towards expanding other content verticals as well. He will be working closely with founders B. Saikumar, Ajay Chacko and RayC as Arré expands its content footprint as India’s fastest growing original content brand on digital.

    Saikumar said “We are delighted to have Jaideep join us at Arré to lead our business efforts as we expand and strengthen our content and platform. Jaideep brings invaluable experience and skills with respect to IP creation and monetisation, to further our growth objective, as we enter into an exciting year 2 of Arré.”

    Arré has built a distinct voice by its unique take on culture and society using stories, doodles and audio besides video. It is one of the country’s fastest growing digital brands on social media besides being widely distributed across a range of domestic and international platforms like SonyLIV, YuppTV, Vodafone Play, Ola Prime Play, TF1 Xtra (OTT Network in France) etc. in addition to its own website and apps on IOS and Android.

    Singh added, “Developing sustained business models in the entertainment sector has always been my passion. The explosive growth that Arré has witnessed as a brand is a story in itself and I am very excited to be part of this journey. My current ventures, Volocity Media and Ignition Creative will also help in creating some state-of-the-art engagement interfaces at Arré.”

    He is currently partnered with two US based companies as a part of his entrepreneurial venture. He is the chairman of Ignition Creative (APAC and Middle East Board), an integrated marketing agency and the managing director, APAC and Middle East, for Volocity Media, a technology innovation group working in the field of developing digital products and platforms for building social communities.

    Singh holds to his credit 20 years of diverse experience across marketing, media and entertainment. He has worked with notable companies, including, JK Tyres, Confederation of India Industries and Radio Mirchi. His last stint was a stellar 10-year position at Viacom18 India, where, as senior vice president and business head of Integrated Network Solutions, he launched a host of domestic and global impact IPs, secured strategic media partnerships with brands, government sectors and engaged with entertainment and media divisions across the globe. He established the INS and Live Viacom18 divisions of Viacom18, which boast of national and regional properties like the global EDM festival Vh1 Supersonic, MTV Xtreme, MTV Bollyland, the Indie artist festival EMERGE, the comedy festival Chuckle Festival, and SPIRO, which dominated the subcontinent with 300+ events and produced hundreds of hours of content.

  • NDTV’s Shouneel Charles joins Times Network as SVP – digital

    MUMBAI: Times is inducting senior executives one after the other. After Nikhil Gandhi, Times Network has strengthened its senior leadership team with the appointment of Shouneel Charles as its senior vice president – digital. Based out of Mumbai, he will report to Times Network MD & CEO M.K. Anand.

    Times Network recently appointed Nikhil Gandhi as president – revenue, whose key responsibility is growth of profitable monetisation of the entire bouquet of channels under the network. Earlier too, he was a part of the core team at Zoom during the launch of the channel.

    On Charles’s appointment, Anand said, “We look forward to scaling heights and claiming our rightful position as a strong Digital Media Company with this induction and other senior level interventions that we plan. Given his experience in digital media, marketing and advertising, we are confident that we will be able to better engage with the New Media market.’’

    Charles said, “Leading the digital practice at a network that is known for its unique campaigns and initiatives is a huge responsibility. The growing digitisation throws a huge opportunity for established brands like Times Network.”

    In his previous assignment, Charles was leading the digital business at NDTV Convergence as the chief sales & marketing officer and chief revenue officer. He helped the media company set up a digital ecosystem, profitable internet and mobile based business.

    With close to 20 years of experience, Shouneel Charles has previously worked for multi-national companies such as Yahoo, Turner Broadcasting, HBO, Warner Brothers, STAR TV and The American Express Bank.

    Also Read:

    Nikhil Gandhi joins Times Network as president – revenue

  • Abhishek Maheshwari takes charge of Disney Media, Subramaniam quits

    MUMBAI: Vijay Subramaniam has called it a day at Disney India as the vice-president for Media Networks. He has decided to pursue other career interests.

    Abhishek Maheshwari, who is currently serving as the vice-president and head of the consumer products, Interactive & Corporate Strategy for Disney India, will take charge of Disney Media Networks. He will lead the new strategic initiatives to prepare the Media Networks business for the new digital world.

    Maheshwari will also continue to lead the Interactive business.

    Sanjeet Mehta has been promoted as the head of Disney Consumer Products (DCP) and will be responsible for the licensing and retail businesses.

    Subramaniam was in charge of a bouquet of eight channels across three segments, youth – bindass and bindass Play, movies – UTV Movies and UTV Action and Kids – Disney Channel India, Disney XD India, Disney Junior India and Hungama TV.

    As the vice-president for Media Networks, he led the unique media solutions division called the Disney Media Plus that offers commercial opportunities generated by the Disney universe in India in addition to creating specialized properties under the bindass brand.

  • Zee Digital Convergence: Divya Dixit joins as head of marketing

    MUMBAI: After shutting down its Mumbai operations, the global internet and technology conglomerate LeEco’s director – content marketing for India Divya Dixit has joined Zee Digital Convergence as the head of marketing.

    It is learnt from a source that Dixit will report to Zee Entertainment Z5 India business head of digital Archana Anand.

    Dixit will lead digital marketing (online, mobile, app and VAS) for dittoTV and OZEE, the OTT offering from the stable of Zee Entertainment Enterprise.

    With 18 years of experience and having worked in a mix of marketing and building brands across multiple industries of retail, broadcasting, telecom and music, Dixit has managed teams up to 40 people and budgets in excess of INR 100 crore.

    Before joining Zee, she was a part of LeEco for almost a year before the company started curtailing operations and eventually shut Mumbai operations.

    Having had many feathers in her hat, Dixit was the head of marketing in Percept Live from April 2014 – March 2016. She created merchandising and space selling categories at Barista, launched a telecom brand at Tata Docomo, new business channel at UTV Network and created new IP at Saregama, etc.

  • AMC Networks promotes Geraud Alazard to SVP – marketing

    MUMBAI: AMC Networks International, a subsidiary of AMC Networks Inc., has appointed Géraud Alazard as Senior Vice President of Marketing. Promoted from the position of Vice President of Marketing for AMC Global and SundanceTV Global, Alazard now has responsibility for all AMCNI portfolio brands including AMC Global, SundanceTV Global and locally recognized channels in various programming genres in more than 140 territories and countries worldwide. Based in New York, he will continue to report to Ed Palluth, Executive Vice President, Global Distribution, AMC Networks International.

    AMC Networks International (AMCNI), the global division of AMC Networks, delivers entertaining and acclaimed programming that reaches subscribers in more than 140 countries and territories, including Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East.

    Palluth commented, “As we continue to enjoy outstanding growth around the world, bringing AMCNI’s globally renowned, high quality programming to more and more viewers, I’m very excited to see an executive of Géraud’s calibre apply his expertise across our entire portfolio of brands. As an accomplished strategist with a wealth of experience, Géraud’s particular skill in identifying innovative global and local marketing opportunities will see him play an expanded role in our rapid expansion.”

    Alazard has an extensive background in international marketing and distribution. Prior to joining AMC Networks International, he served as managing director at PureScreens in Paris, France where he spearheaded the roll-out of The Museum Channel on European pay-TV platforms. Previously, Alazard served as Director of Marketing, Sales and Business Development at Televista, which operates French lifestyle channel Vivolta. He has also held positions at A+E Television Networks in the US and Germany. He holds a MS in International Corporate Strategy from ESSEC Business School, Thunderbird Graduate School and a BS in Politics and Management from Sciences-Po Paris, Heidelberg Universität.

    Last month, AMC Networks International announced that it is significantly boosting its regional growth in key markets with channel launches and new distribution deals across its brand portfolio. Networks including AMC, which has created some of the most successful television series of the last decade, are launching on key pay-TV operators in Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe, Iberia and Africa to serve audiences with award-winning programming across multiple genres.