GECs
Regulation has become totally opaque: Uday Shankar
KOLKATA: One of the major issues which have been daunting the media and entertainment industry, especially the broadcast sector, is the regulatory burden. Although senior officials from the government have argued that there is no such burden, many stakeholders have expressed concern against the same from time to time. Media maven, The Walt Disney Company APAC chairman and Star and Disney India president Uday Shankar said his biggest disappointment with regulation is that it has become totally opaque.
Participating in APOS 2020, Shankar, in a conversation with Media Partners Asia executive director and co-founder Vivek Couto stated that there is a lack of clarity on why the regulator is regulating something. Moreover, there is no consistency in the regulations. He also opined that the regulators need to have clarity and share that clarity publicly with both the media community and the public at large that what are they regulating, what’s the agenda and the vision. He reminded that regulation should not be for the sake of regulating something but to create a level playing field, promote growth and benefit consumers. He stated that sometimes it feels that in markets like India, regulation is only for creating hurdles in the growth of the business.
“Unless you have clarity on that and everybody understands exactly the boundary condition within which regulation will operate, it creates all kinds of confusions and setbacks to the industry. Media is such a sector that if the industry does not do well, the first victims are consumers. If you don’t have enough money to invest in content, at a business level, you can employ fewer people but create less value,” he added.
Shankar added that the industry also cannot completely disregard or operate in a vacuum. “It has to be aware of its social responsibilities and sensitivities in each market. I am a big believer in media and with freedom comes great responsibility as well,” he said.
Shankar also spoke on the streaming service Disney+ Hotstar which is off to a great start. “We decided to take advantage of the early days of this crisis. We launched Disney+ Hotstar right in the middle of the crisis, in the month of April, when the whole country was in lockdown. Advertising was interrupted, we could not make our critical marketing plan, the live sports we planned to leverage for Disney+ Hotstar was not available and yet we launched and we are the biggest streaming service in India by far,” he said.
For Disney+ Hotstar, the only benchmark is that the platform can compete with TV channels in terms of its reach, delivery and consumption. According to him, if streaming has to become mainstream eventually, it has to serve the local population at scale and has to be sustainable. That’s the only metric everybody has to follow. While its ambitions are to compete with TV, Shankar noted that Disney+ Hotstar has to relentlessly work on cutting-edge technology.
Shankar mentioned that while 150-160 million homes are connected to TV in India, smartphones and video-enabled devices can reach the number of 700-750 million in a few years. Hence the screen universe is much bigger than TV. According to him, streaming, if done right, has the potential to be bigger than TV purely in terms of the number of consumers and the amount of time they spend. However, he also stated that TV, too, has a fair road ahead but it needs to fix the business model going through a correction.
“We (Disney+ Hotstar) should be able to rapidly get to a number similar to frontline mass-market entertainment channels in the country through reach and access,” he concluded.
MUMBAI: Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited has appointed Aparna Ramachandran as EVP and head of network digital, signalling a sharper focus on strengthening its digital and streaming ecosystem.
Ramachandran joins Zee from Balaji Telefilms, where she served as head of digital originals, leading content strategy and production for the company’s digital platforms. She announced the move on LinkedIn, marking a new chapter in her career spanning more than 15 years across media, entertainment and technology.
Her professional journey includes senior roles at Viacom18 Media, Viu, FremantleMedia, Miditech, BigSynergy, BBC Worldwide, CNBC-TV18 and Bloomberg UTV. She began her career in 2005 as a software engineer at Infosys before transitioning into media and digital content leadership.
With experience across streaming media, broadcast television, content development, digital strategy, project management and video production, Ramachandran is expected to play a key role in shaping Zee’s network-wide digital growth and content innovation.
London: Zee Entertainment has launched its flagship Zee TV as a live FAST channel on Samsung TV Plus across Germany, Austria and Switzerland, marking a first for South Asian television in Europe with round-the-clock live German subtitles.
The move takes Zee TV beyond its core diaspora audience and into the German-speaking mainstream, offering dramas, reality shows and family entertainment without subscriptions or language barriers. For FAST platforms, it sets a new benchmark in accessibility and scale.
Amit Goenka, president, international and digital businesses at Zee Entertainment, said the launch marked a turning point in the company’s global strategy.
“Zee TV Germany is a flagship launch and a defining moment in our journey to make entertainment truly borderless. By going live on Samsung TV Plus with 24/7 German subtitles, we are breaking language barriers and setting a new international benchmark for FAST streaming,†he said, adding that the partnership reflects Zee’s ambition to lead the FAST revolution through innovation and technology.
The rollout builds on the strong regional presence of Zee One and Zee5, both of which have cultivated loyal audiences across the DACH markets. The live FAST model now closes long-standing access gaps, particularly for younger diaspora viewers and first-time German-speaking audiences.
Samsung TV Plus said the partnership deepens its content portfolio in the region. Benedict Frey, country lead DACH and Benelux at Samsung TV Plus, said the addition strengthens its South Asian offering while widening appeal.
“Launching flagship Zee TV on Samsung TV Plus brings even more premium South Asian entertainment to our customers. Making this content available with live German subtitles is a meaningful step in serving diverse audiences and enriching the viewing experience,†he said.
Samsung TV Plus is Samsung’s free ad-supported streaming service, offering hundreds of live channels and on-demand titles across Samsung TVs, Galaxy devices and smart monitors.
Zee already commands a strong digital following across Germany, Austria and Switzerland, with social platforms engaging hundreds of thousands of viewers. The live FAST launch is expected to amplify reach and drive appointment viewing at scale.
Zee TV is now available exclusively on Samsung TV Plus in Germany on channel 4210. With this launch, Zee TV Germany becomes the group’s ninth channel in Europe.
The signal is clear: FAST has gone mainstream—and Zee has arrived early, translated and ready to scale.
MUMBAI: Sri Adhikari Brothers Television Network has formally adopted a new corporate identity, rechristening itself Aqylon Nexus Limited after receiving clearance from the ministry of corporate affairs.
The company has informed the Bombay Stock Exchange that the MCA has approved the change of name, with effect from January 23, 2026. The update was disclosed in compliance with Regulation 30 of the Securities and Exchange Board of India’s Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements Regulations, 2015.
Confirming the approval, the company said the ministry had cleared the transition from Sri Adhikari Brothers Television Network Limited to Aqylon Nexus Limited following the necessary regulatory process.
Aqylon Nexus said it has begun the formal exercise of replacing the old name across statutory filings and regulatory records. The broadcaster added that it is coordinating with relevant authorities and departments to complete the transition.
Under Section 12 of the Companies Act, 2013, the MCA has directed the company to continue displaying its former name alongside the new one for a period of two years.
Founded in 1994 and based in Mumbai, the company has been a long-standing presence in India’s television and content ecosystem. The rebrand reflects a repositioning effort as the media and entertainment sector undergoes rapid consolidation and structural change.
The legacy name remains on paper—for now. The business, however, is clearly turning the page.
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