MUMBAI: The Viral Fever (TVF) has handed a wider mandate to Amritansh Vajpeyee, elevating him to associate producer and head of new initiatives, strategy, IP and growth, as the digital studio sharpens its push on original intellectual property and scalable formats.

The move crowns a swift in-house ascent. Vajpeyee has spent over three years at TVF, working across the president’s office, the executive producer’s office and development and innovation, before a stint as AVP. Each role tightened his grip on the levers of content, strategy and incubation inside one of India’s most influential youth-focused studios.

Before TVF, Vajpeyee built a hybrid profile straddling storytelling and law. He wrote for Pratilipi, trained in entertainment law at DSK Legal and handled IP-focused roles at TINNUTS and research centres linked to NLSIU Bengaluru. Early internships at SVF Entertainment and Hoichoi added on-ground exposure to production ecosystems, while a brief stint at Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited rounded out a varied start.

For TVF, the elevation signals a preference for home-grown leaders who understand both the creative and commercial maths of streaming. For Vajpeyee, it is a bet that breadth beats linearity in the creator economy.

As platforms chase durable franchises over fleeting hits, TVF is doubling down on people who can spot, shape and scale ideas. Vajpeyee now sits at that crossroads—where scripts meet spreadsheets and IP is the real star.

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NOIDA: ABP Network has strengthened its government-facing business with the appointment of Sanjeev Sharma as head of government sales, adding an experienced hand to its senior commercial leadership.

Sharma joins the broadcaster after a stint of over a year at Zee Media, where he served as business head for government sales. There, he worked closely with public sector advertisers and agencies, navigating the intersection of policy, media strategy and large-scale outreach.

In his new role at ABP Network, Sharma will be responsible for driving government advertising initiatives across the group’s platforms, aligning public communication goals with the network’s expansive news and digital footprint.

Sharma brings with him nearly three decades of experience in sales and marketing. Over the years, he has held senior leadership roles across the media and pharmaceutical sectors, working with prominent organisations including Network18 Media, Star India, Reliance Broadcast Network, Nicholas Piramal and Zydus Cadila.

At ABP Network, Sharma is expected to play a key role in sharpening the group’s government sales strategy, ensuring it speaks clearly, consistently and effectively to one of the media industry’s most influential stakeholders.

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MUMBAI: This one is for those who love the drama of media, especially when it involves the nonagenarian Rupert Murdoch, who played a heavy hand in transforming how the US and global media and entertainment business was run, until YouTube expanded its reach and Netflix arrived on the scene.

Journalist and screenwriter Gabriel Sherman’s Bonfire of the Murdochs is set to release in India on 3 February on Amazon in its Kindle edition. It tells the tale of Rupert Murdoch and his eldest son, who were ranged against his three other children, Prudence, James and Elizabeth, in a battle to gain control of the Fox News and News Corp empire that the elder Murdoch had built para by para, prime-time news by prime-time news, over decades. If one goes by international press reviews and excerpts from the book, it is going to make for a very good read.

As Sherman told a publication: “A member of the family told me that Succession was good but that the family was even weirder. That stuck in my head when I was doing the book, that the real-life story was even more unexpected than the TV show.”

*Bonfire of the Murdochs* tracks how the family fissioned due to Rupert Murdoch’s strategy of pitting sibling against sibling and his decision to change the wording of a trust, handing over control of his empire to his conservative elder son Lachlan, when the original deed had envisioned dividing the empire among his four children. It chronicles how this single decision brought three of his children together to fight a no-holds-barred legal battle with both him and Lachlan in a Nevada court. Rupert ultimately lost the battle and reached a settlement that saw Lachlan inheriting the empire, while his three other children walked away with more than a billion dollars each and a promise not to interfere in future.

Sherman spoke to 150 sources to write the tome, even though he has tracked Murdoch for close to 20 years. Expect an overflow of emotions and plenty of details about family betrayal, hurt, distress and unexpected twists. The book is unputdownable. Pick it up if you are a media aficionado by clicking on the link here.

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Link to the book