Mumbai: India TV has elevated Amit Sinha as president of strategy and research. He has been associated with the company since January 2021.
Sinha has 17 years of experience in providing insight-led (quantitative and qualitative) inputs that has informed brands, content, promo communications, marketing, scheduling, planning, off-air business and sales strategy.
Earlier, he has had stints at TV Today Network, SITV and Total TV. Sinha is an alumnus of MICA, Ahmedabad.
Mumbai: India TV has appointed Vinay Maheshwari as group chief executive officer. In this role, Maheshwari will lead strategic initiatives in broadcast and digital media.
He is a seasoned professional with more than 25 years of experience out of which 17 were spent in the media industry.
Prior to joining India TV, Maheshwari was associated with Sakshi Media Group as executive director and CEO.
In the past, he worked with companies such as DB Corp Ltd and HT Media.
KOLKATA: As part of its strategic review, iTV Network has restructured and strengthened its sales team.
Meenakshi Singh has been elevated as president government sales & retail for India News, iTV Network. She brings a broad range of 21 years of experience to her new position at iTV Network. She has experience in working with MNC’s like Gecis (GE), Dell, Neoteric. She has throughout been a star performer winning many awards and recognition. She has been associated with India News since 2020 and was previously vice president, sales & marketing, iTV Network.
Sanjay Singhal has been promoted as president, government north zone Haryana, Punjab, Himachal for India News and Aaj Samaj Chandigarh and Delhi. Sanjay brings nearly three decades of experience to his role in the media Industry with throughout a star performer. He has been associated with India News since 2010, and in his last role, he was associated as senior vice president in iTV Network heading Aaj Samaj and India News Haryana, Punjab and Himachal. Prior to this, he was associated with Hindustan Times as DGM, Chandigarh unit from 2000-2010 (also coordinator and black belt of six sigma in Hindustan Times). He has worked with Indian Express and Jansatta as well from 1990-2000 as a government head.
Suman Singh has also been promoted as deputy general manager (sales). Singh is a seasoned media professional with over 11 years of experience in the media Industry. He has been associated with India News since 2016. He is associated with government sales team (Delhi ).
iTV Network CEO Varun Kohli said, “We are delighted to elevate Meenakshi, Sanjay and Suman. Their skills and wide experience will strive to further strengthen the various revenue streams of iTV network and achieve a robust growth in the coming year and tap newer opportunities in the ever expanding Hindi news space. The promotion reflects the value they bring to the organisation as we execute our plan to grow the business by leveraging our product.”
NEW DELHI: TV Today GM strategy planning and research Amit Sinha has moved on from the organisation and is set to join India TV in the capacity of VP strategy and research.
He worked at TV Today for over five years and was responsible for reviewing and analysing weekly numbers, providing strategic inputs and handling programming, strategy and content, weekly analysis of chrome and RWP distribution data.
Additionally, he provided inputs to the distribution team, and was also involved in promo planning, performance analysis, analysing weekly advertiser trends, monitoring field marketing budgets, implementing a suitable merchandising strategy for the trade, budget planning, market research, as well as developing and maintaining P&L.
Sinha has over 15 years of industry experience in the media industry and has worked at Total TV, SITV, Teammate Media Research content and communication India.
NEW DELHI: Moving on from TV9 as AVP marketing & events, Nikhil Mathur has joined Rajat Sharma-led India TV as head of marketing. He took on the new role at the start of 2021.
Mathur worked with TV9 for a little over a year, overseeing marketing and events for the news network. He has an overall experience of more than 15 years in the industry. In the past, he has worked with PTC Punjabi Network, Focus News, and Zee News.
NEW DELHI: While 2020 was marked by many highs and lows for the Indian news industry, some newspersons’ star only rose.Here’s the second part of the year-end series on people’s movements in the Indian news industry,focusing on top-rank promotions within the organisations and those who took on additional charges.
India Today
Dinesh Bhatia was elevated to CEO of India Today Group. He was earlier the group CFO.
Mail Today deputy editor Darpan Singh was named the executive editor for Indiatoday.in. The announcement came after India Today announced the closureofMail Today’s print edition.
Rahul Shaw was promoted to the post of CEO – TV and radio, Salil Kumar to CEO – digital, KR Arora to COO – distribution and international, and Yatendra Tyagi was made TVTN CFO. Manoj Sharma took on the new responsibilityof CEO – magazines, LMI.
India TV
In its decision “to rethink, rework, and retool” its business strategies, India TV announced promotions for four of its key persons looking after business revenue, corporate affairs, television operations, and growth and monetisation aspects.
Sudipto Chowdhury was elevated to chief revenue officer, Puneet Tandon as chief officer – corporate affairs, Rohit Lal as chief officer – television operations, and Gulab Makhija, in addition to his role of CFO, was given the portfolio of CEO for growth and monetisation.
Mathrubhumi Group
After the demise of late chairman and managing director MP Veerendra Kumar, Mathrubhumi Board elected PV Chandran as chairman and MV Shreyams Kumar as managing director. PV Chandran also continues to function as the whole-time director and managing editor.
PV Gangadharan, erstwhile director, was appointed as the whole-time director and Mayura MS was tapped as a whole-time additional director of the company.
Mathrubhumi also announced the elevation of Naveen Sreenivasan as head media solutions TRD (television, radio, anddigital).
Network18
Firstpost business head – English news cluster Azim Lalani was elevated as COO – brand solutions and convergence for Network18 digital. He was also given the additional charge of branded content for CNN-News18. Kishore Ajwani was given the post of managing editor from deputy managing editor.
Smriti Mehra was promoted from the post of COO – business news to CEO – business news cluster. She is now responsible for the P&L of this cluster and CNBC digital. Additionally, News18 Languages product function Sudipto Nandy was tapped as News18.com product head – general news.
Karthik Subbaraman was appointed the managing editor for the network’s digital news operations. Prior to this, Subbaraman was the editor overseeing three southern channels, a responsibility he passed on to Vivek Narayan.
Preeti Sahni was handed the charge of COO – Forbes India; Siddharth Saini shouldered the responsibility of handling English news, business news and Forbes verticals, as well as international business.
The Hindu Group
Malini Parthasarathy was named the chairperson of the board of directors. She took over the reins from N Ram, who stepped down from the position at the age of 75. Prior to this, Parthasarathy had been the co-chairperson.
Additionally, publisher of The Hindu Group’s various newspapers N Ravi was elected as the chairperson of Kasturi & Sons Ltd.
The New Indian Express
The publisher promoted VP – marketing and digital operations Amitabh Bishnoi to VP for digital properties.
The Quint
The Quint announced the elevation of national revenue head Devika Dayalto the position of its chief revenue officer in September this year.
Times Network
Times Network president – strategy and business head – English entertainment cluster Vivek Shrivastava was given the additional charge of the network’s news business. In addition to Movies Now, Romedy Now, MN+, MNX, the news channels Times Now, ET Now and Mirror Now were added to his portfolio.
TV9 Network
TV9 Network strengthened its management team by promoting president Vikram K as COO – south. He will be driving the group’s flagship channels TV9 Telugu and TV9 Kannada. It also announced the appointment of Raktim Das as COO – Studio 9.
Republic Media Network
Group president Bhaskar Das was elevated to chief strategy officer. Group CFO S Sundaram was given additional responsibility as group president. Hersh Bhandari and Priya Mukherjee were also tapped as COOs.
NEW DELHI: India TV has made sweeping changes in its leadership team, elevating four of its key people looking after business revenue, corporate affairs, television operations, and growth and monetisation aspects. The news group has decided “to rethink, rework and retool” its business strategies in order to make the company more adaptable and resilient. The following changes have been made in India TV’s core team:
Sudipto Chowdhuri has been promoted as chief revenue officer and shall be responsible for maximisation of revenue by identifying and innovating opportunities for enhanced business.
Puneet Tandon has been promoted as chief officer, corporate affairs, and shall be responsible for managing corporate, government and public relations for the organisation.
Rohit Lal has been promoted as chief officer – television operations and shall be responsible for integration across the organisation and collaboration with all internal partners.
Gulab Makhija, in addition to his role of CFO, has been given the portfolio of CEO for growth and monetisation. He shall be responsible for expansion of existing business within India and in overseas markets, seeking new business opportunities, driving new partnerships and monetisation of existing resources.
All these roles and responsibilities are effective immediately.
India TV MD Ritu Dhawan said, “It is imperative, given the present state of affairs amidst the pandemic, to rethink and retool our business strategy and strengthen our business to make it adaptable and resilient. Keeping this in mind, we have delegated responsibilities and enhanced role of our core business team to deal with various challenges effectively and ensure a better tomorrow.”
NEW DELHI: India TV editor-in-chief Rajat Sharma was re-elected as the president of the National Broadcasting Association (NBA) at its 13th annual general meeting. The board has elected News24 Broadcast India Ltd chairperson-cum-MD Anuradha Prasad as its vice president, and Bennett, Coleman & Co Ltd – Times Network MD and CEO MK Anand as honorary treasurer for the year 2020-2021.
Accepting the charge, Sharma said in his address, “I would like to thank Mrs Annie Joseph, secretary-general, NBA for her efforts in ensuring that the objectives and initiatives of the NBA are achieved and implemented. I would also like to thank the staff of the NBA Secretariat, legal counsel, financial and corporate consultants as well as the auditors of NBA and bankers for their valuable time and cooperation.”
He also spoke about BARC’s decision to hit the pause button on TRP measurement for news channels. “NBA has welcomed the decision of BARC to suspend the measurement of television viewership ratings of news channels for a period of twelve weeks. I have said in my statement that the corrupted, compromised, irrationally fluctuating data is creating a false narrative on What India Watches and has been putting pressure on our members to take editorial calls that run counter to the journalistic values and ideals of journalism. The current atmosphere of toxicity, abuse and fake news is no longer tenable and NBA as the custodian and guardian of Indian broadcast media believes a bold step of putting ratings of news genre on hold will help in improving the content. I would urge all the members broadcasters during this twelve-week period to take all the necessary steps to improve the content of their channels and move away from the tyranny of ratings and ensure that the independent self-regulatory model adopted by the news broadcasters is vigorously supported and its decisions adhered to by all of us.”
He added, “I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr Prakash Javadekar, secretary and officials in the ministry of information & broadcasting and the TRAI for their continued understanding and support on issues which confront us. Since 2008, our self-regulation initiative has been a source of pride for us. On behalf of the NBA board and on my own behalf I would like to place on record our sincere gratitude and thanks to the chairperson and independent members of the NBSA for their support, invaluable guidance and time.”
The other members on the NBA Board are: –
New Delhi: This festive season India TV is introducing its Diwali Dhamaaka – ‘Fakir-e-Azam”, a comedy show that is sure to give you relief from all the tension around. Set in the Pakistani PM’s office Fakir-E-Azam is a political satire that focuses on the day to day struggles of the current prime minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, that faces in the his office.
The show follows Imran Khan, as he goes about his daily routine, calling heads of various countries trying to get his agenda across, but no one seems to take him seriously, instead, they make fun of him, threaten him and humiliate him, the situation reaches a point where he gets frustrated and ends up making fun of himself.
Khan is often seen mumbling to himself that no one listens to him, as most people he calls keep the phone down without listening to what he has to say. Besides trying to connect with heads of other countries Khan is seen struggling with the problems within his own ranks and often trying to solve issues caused by their actions.
Besides all this the most important thing that Khan wants to talk about is India and how he feels threatened by Modi’s regime as they take immediate action as compared to the previous regime who did nothing. The other thing that features in Imran Khan’s conversation, which also gives the show its title ‘Fakir-e-Aazam’, is the fact that Pakistan’s economy is in shambles, it is literally a bankrupt state and that is why Khan is asking everyone for money especially China, by painting a sorry picture of Pakistan.
The show Fakir-e-Azam tries to be as current to the situation in Pakistan, but also touches topics that have been a permanent fixture of the countries landscape, terrorism and Kashmir. Renowned voiceover and character artist Vishwas Kapoor creates some hilarious moments to this show as he plays the Pakistani PM Imran Khan.
MUMBAI: India TV has appointed Prakash Natarajan as CTO (chief technology officer), to take charge of the channel’s news broadcast operations. Before India TV, he was working as vice president, tech and operations in Network18 Pvt Ltd.
This is Natarajan’s second stint with India TV.
India TV managing director Ritu Dhawan said: “ I am happy to welcome back Prakash Natarajan. At India TV we like to be one up in technology and Prakash is someone who keeps himself updated with the latest releases in television technology, I am sure in his new role, Prakash will be able to take India TV’s technological advancement to the next level.”
Natarajan said: “Feeling elated to be back home! Experience gained in my previous organisation of managing multiple channels spread across the country will come handy in achieving many technological goals and plans at India TV.”