Rajiv Singh

ZMCL COO Rajiv Singh steps down

MUMBAI: Zee Media Corporation Limited (ZMCL) COO Rajiv Singh has stepped down from his role, with 28 February set to be his last working day, the company has notified the BSE. He will relinquish his duties as a board member on 31 January 2019.

Singh joined Zee Media from Network18 where he was senior VP (business head) of News18 since August 2014. Prior to joining Network18, Singh was general manager, Middle East at Tribal Fusion, an online advertising network owned by Exponential Interactive.

Singh has previously worked with Khaleej Times Online, Hindustan Times, Dainik Bhaskar and The Times of India, helping revitalize the media brands.

Based on recommendations of the Nomination & Remuneration Committee, Vishwapati Trivedi, lAS (Retd.) has been appointed as additional director in the category of non-executive independent director with effect from January 24, 2019.

Punit Goenka has also been appointed as additional director in the category of non-executive non-independent director with effect from January 24, 2019.

January 24, 2019

News18.com Brings Ashish Naik OnBoard As The National Sales Head

National, 23 April, 2018: News18.com, India’s leading digital news platform, expands its top management with the addition of Ashish Naik as National Sales Head. He comes with over 17 years of experience in media sales and has formerly worked with organizations such as Tata Infomedia, BCCL, Business Standard and NDTV Media Ltd. Prior to joining News18.com, Ashish has been a part of Times Internet Ltd, where he served in the capacity of Regional Manager West, and was eventually promoted to National Sales Head.

A Science graduate from Mumbai University, he has done his post graduation in Marketing Management from MET Mumbai. In his current role at News18.com, Ashish aims to bring onboard a maximum number of advertising partners and consolidate the network’s position as a leader in the space.

News18.com has recorded 50 million monthly users, which is an (outstanding) increase of 249% in comparison to last year. The growth numbers recorded by the platform stand testimony to the network’s lazer-sharp focus on delivering extensive and quality political news coverage supplemented by new-age technology and consistent updates to the platform. In only two years, the platform has also touched another milestone – that of 30 million monthly users on mobile, a significant 170% increase in comparison to last year. The platform also (transcended/surpassed) its own high benchmark, with the Budget Day witnessing a record total of 5.2 million users, in a single day, on the platform.

Speaking about the platform’s growth and expansion, Rajiv Singh, Business Head News18.com and CricketNext said, “Last year has been great for News18.com with the platform touching new milestones and setting higher benchmarks in terms of audience engagement and reach. Now, after Gujarat and HP elections we are looking forward to Karnataka elections. And now, with Ashish as the new addition to the team, we are looking at taking things a step ahead and bringing in more and more engaging and captivating formats for our consumers.”

Commenting on the occasion Ashish Naik – News18.com’s National Sales Head said, “I am certainly excited to begin a new chapter in my career with News18.com. With the digital boom still in its nascent stages in the country, it is certainly a great time to be a part of the sector. In my new role at the company, I intend to promote innovative 360 degree properties, which tend to result in higher audience reach and engagement. At the same time, I also intend to adopt a more consultative approach in grasping the requirements and needs of the clients, since a property is a complete success when it appeals to all the stakeholder involved including the consumers.”

About NEWS18.com

NEWS18.com (formerly known as ibnlive.com) is the digital destination of CNN News18 (formerly known as CNN IBN) with hard news as its core offering and interactivity as its key component. Along with a bevy of mobile- and multimedia-enabled content, News18.com is a multi-platform offering that, for the first time, provides viewers/users an opportunity to contribute to the news process and interact with editors and reporters. Manned 24×7, NEWS18.com is powered not just by NEWS18 journalists but also by Network18’s team of over 1,000 news professionals. NEWS18.com is also recognized for its one-of-the-kind offerings such as CricketNext, Compare India, and Indiwo amongst others.

About Network18 Digital

Network18 Digital (N18D) is the digital arm of Network18, one of India’s most diversified media conglomerates with interests in television, Internet, films, e-commerce, magazines, mobile content and allied businesses. N18D is among the largest multi-platform destinations for objective breaking news, opinions, financial data and infotainment for the evolved digital news consumer. Network18 Digital houses assets such as moneycontrol.com, firstpost.com, news18.com etc., and is constantly seeding new ideas to be the dominant force in the digital space. It caters to all sections of society, especially to the digital savvy consumer, the millennials and Generation Z users who access and consume content on the go.

April 24, 2018

CricketNext Ranks #2, ahead of major sports players

MUMBAI: Even before the onset of the T20 season, News 18 Sports (including CricketNext), has raced ahead to #2 with an all-time high traffic of 10.075 Million across desktop and mobile, according to comScore India, Feb 2018 MMX Multi-Platform, Sports Category.

CricketNext is renowned for its “news” over “opinion” offering – and is a one-stop-destination for all cricket fans. With one of the fastest score cards in the business, as well as live blogs and in-depth match analysis, the platform is swiftly becoming the preferred destination for all the fans of the sport in country.

In addition to dabbling into the key features on CricketNext, visitors also engage in popular features on the portal such as ‘From the Press Box,’ ‘From the Archives’ and ‘Off the Field’ amongst others. The engaging features ensure that the visitors are constantly updated about the happenings in the field, and allows them to keep tabs on their favorite players.

For the upcoming T20 season, CricketNext has tied up with former cricketer and KKR batsman – Aakash Chopra, in an exclusive digital show “Opening Salvo.” A respected commentator with an eye for detail, Aakash Chopra will bring to the table some interesting pre-match analysis before every match. With this addition, the platform will be delivering a comprehensively engaging experience to cricket fans, like never before.

Commenting on the tie up, Aakash Chopra said, “From power play to the death overs…I’m hoping to cover the depth of T20 cricket for CricketNext this IPL.”

Speaking about the development, News18.com & CricketNext, Business Head, Rajiv Singh said, “This seems like one of the most promising T20 seasons, and we are expecting a traffic of 40 – 50 million unique visitors.”

The comprehensive experience of CricketNext is also available via the CricketNext app on android and iOS.

April 2, 2018

News18.com’s reel movie awards to celebrate new age cinema like never before

MUMBAI: News18.com, one of India’s top breaking news websites, recently announced its marquee property – the Reel Movie Awards, India’s first and only movie awards to recognise and reward the New Age Cinema and its artists. With Reliance Digital as the presenting sponsor, the distinctive awards show will take place on 20th March in Mumbai. Reputed personalities from Bollywood such as Farah Khan, Sujoy Ghosh, Sudhir Mishra and Nikhil Advani comprise a 4-member jury for the unique awards. The awards property is looking at going beyond acknowledging big-budget blockbuster movies, to celebrate small-budget films with quality content, made under Rs 20 crore, that has been appreciated by critics and masses alike.

The nominations for the awards began with the announcement of the property, a month ago. Being categorized into ‘On Screen’ and ‘Behind The Scenes,’ the nominations aim to include the complete gamut of offerings in the arena. Movies such as Newton, Mukti Bhavan amongst others along with web-series such as Pushpavali, Bose – Dead or Alive, Lakhon Main Ekk and more have been nominated under different categories. The jury as well as the audiences will choose and vote for their favourites to win at News18.com’s Reel Movie Awards.

Commenting on being a part of the jury, Director/Producer, Farah Khan said, “I think the most interesting and important aspect about new age cinema is not just the new story but the way they have put it across to the audience. Most of these movies are really interesting stories and also the fact that they have been made in such little money with really high quality sound and editing, it is in-line with international standards. At the same time, the digital content is also equally outstanding, with stories that I have never heard before. Given the quality of content online, the cost of production is simply surprising. I believe that web content will be the king in the coming years.”

Director and jury member Nikhil Advani said, “I feel taking a creative risk in an atmosphere where the only thing that matters is the Friday – the first-day first show and the box office, should definitely be rewarded. More and more audiences are turning towards quality content today, teaching the filmmakers that pure content will be appreciated. We are all here to support independent cinema and good content; all the talents nominated here are exceptional. There have been some very clear standout performances, and outstanding in terms of what they have done, be it acting, directing, writing or filmmaking. If you have good content on your side then you don’t have to rely on the stars as a vehicle to take your film forward.”

Expressing his views on the nominations, Director, Sujoy Ghosh said, “I feel it is a very honorable and a good move to focus on independent and new age cinema. The independent cinema is highly content driven and most of them have very fantastic content. Today cinema is heading in a direction where either it has to be a big entertainment or very clever entertainment. In the film business an award helps quantify, awards are important and necessary, some may not feel the same though. The News18.com’s Reel Movie Awards is a great platform and it will surely encourage a lot of film makers.”

News18.com and CricketNext, Business Head, Rajiv Singh said, “Our aim is to keep pushing boundaries with one-of-a-kind IPs that highlight News18.com’s innovative digital edge. Building on this vision, REEL Movie Awards 2018 is a step in the right direction for us because it’s the only awards property that recognizes creative excellence, both on celluloid and on the digital platform. By celebrating new age cinema and artists, the property aims to highlight the power of content in a budget-driven world. Moreover, it reinforces the fact that good quality content resonating with audiences and critics alike emerges victorious, over and above anything else. So far in under 4 weeks we have crossed over 2lacs online votes from people supporting their favorite star and movies.”

March 15, 2018

News is not about cacophony and stirring controversies: ZMCL’s Rajiv Singh

The Zee Group has completed a quarter of a century of its existence in India. Not only has it spread its wing far beyond television, since its first product launched was the channel Zee TV, but has tapped into almost all categories in the broadcast space. With a solid presence in entertainment and news already, the last puzzle was fixed when it dived into the tough waters of English news space.

World is One News (WION) was first aired on 15 August 2016. Independence Day was the perfect occasion to launch India’s first global English news channel with a south Asian tinge. Ex-editor in chief Rohit Gandhi announced during the launch that the channel would meet the aspirations of two billion south Asians by delivering a global news network reflecting a south Asian world perspective, which has been missing.

The channel was to be a destination for not just news but also some lifestyle, human stories, animals, food and environment related information. Its target is to capture the upcoming tech-savvy and visual Gen Z, the earliest of whom are just venturing into the corporate world.

Indiantelevision.com’s Santosh Jangid got talking with Zee Media Corp’s group COO Rajiv Singh where he opens up about the ‘year old baby’ WION for the first time. Excerpts:

How has the journey been for ZMCL?

From then to now, we’ve established 13 channels with 220 million viewers. We are largest television news network in Hindi speaking markets. Television is core to our business and the last 25 years have helped us to become a large content media conglomerate. The future looks extremely bright, as we have built a strong efficiency over the years.

Enlighten us about WION and its progress.

When we entered the English news segment, we clearly knew that there is hardly an international player. India is a global economy and anything and everything that India does impacts the globe. We wanted to give global Indians a global voice and India never had that. WION complements our existing footprint in 171 countries and so we know we can quickly ramp up this business to scale new heights and make India stand out globally. We started that journey by giving the channel a very global look and feel. We have built it up as an aspirational channel and we are not interested in the number one game in India. We want to create a channel that is a content differentiator. WION is just a year old but it has managed to carve a niche for itself.

What is your distribution strategy for the channel?

WION has established a distribution centre in South Africa and shortly we will be transcending into new global corridors. Zee Media is already available in nine languages on GEC. How much time does it take to enter those markets by just tweaking the content and making WION relevant to every Indian!

What makes WION a disruptor among the existing channels?

WION stands for World Is One News which implies what affects the world, affects us all. We believe that news dissemination is not about cacophony and stirring controversies around breaking news. It is about building in-depth content, analysis and about investing a lot in curating and building content and for that, one needs to have international investments and international bureaus. WION has expanded to around 20 countries by expanding our international bureaus. It is one of the rare few channels to be operating out of a full bureau in Pakistan and a full-fledged office in London and the US, and a correspondent in Beijing. Soon WION will crossover from an Asian to a global channel.

What is the local to international skew? What kind of news do you cover?

WION has international content aired from 6 pm to 12 am. The channel has 60 per cent international content and 40 per cent Indian content that is internationally relevant. We do chase Indian relevant stories and as they say, ‘when in Rome, do as the Romans do.’ W show Indian content with a global tinge and ‘international’ as a word is misinterpreted. BBC in the UK and Al Jazeera in the Middle East are international channels but that doesn’t mean they don’t show what happens in their region and home territory.

It is a niche market that the channel operates in. What have been some of the major challenges for you?

It has been a challenging uphill climb but the channel has been accepted by discerning viewers. WION is available across all cable households in India. Although we have received some feedback that wasn’t very encouraging where viewers didn’t like the content or the overall channel, we take them as constructive feedback and insights and we are willing to improve that to make the content relevant to our customers.

Where does most of your viewership coming from?

Majority of our viewership largely comes from six metros but a large part of it also comes from foreigners residing in India as they are able to correlate with the channel effectively. The channel has a premium audience.

How will you ramp up your distribution strategy?

We are working towards building a global distribution network. We are in talks with The US to start global distribution. We will also make relevant content for markets like The Middle East, United Kingdom, United States and Canada. We will have more global networks next year added to our kitty of distribution.

What target have you set for next year?

We want to make the channel independently stand out in English news genre, add more distribution networks, and have more bureaus.

When can we see the rollout of your OTT platform?

We will have our platform very soon that will take the feed from the television channel and mirror that on OTT.

November 6, 2017

Sudhir Chaudhary elevated as editor-in-chief of Zee News, Zee Business, WION & DNA

MUMBAI: Is it merit, Hobson’s choice, or simply loyalty? Operating on the growth path and to strengthen its leadership team, Zee Business, an arm of Zee Media Corporation, has elevated Sudhir Chaudhary to the editor-in-chief position for Zee News, Zee Business, WION and DNA.

He will report to Zee Media group COO Rajiv Singh. Respective editorial teams will report to Chaudhary who seems to be gaining prominence faster than normal course.

After the exit of Amish Devgan, the channel was looked after by Samir Ahluwalia, who was appointed as the editor for Zee Business in May 2016 and deputy editor Mihir Bhatt.

Accused in Rs 100-crore extortion case against industrialist Naveen Jindal, Ahluwalia called it a day in Zee Media in September 2016. Several rumours had surfaced about Bhatt being elevated to the role of the channel head but he now seems to be losing favour with the senior management. The search for Zee Business’ head continued since, until this development.

Asheet Kunal has been given the interim charge of India 24×7 editor surpassing Vasindra Mishra, who earlier served as the editor of Zee Media’s national Hindi news channel. Kunal will continue reporting to Jagdeesh Chandra. The group has re-designated Mishra as the political editor for regional channels and will report to Chandra.

Chandra was recently appointed as the executive director of Zee Media’ regional news channels. He also takes care of Essel Group’s newspaper DNA as the CEO.

March 31, 2017

WION launch now formal; lists marquee shows

MUMBAI: After its soft launch in August this year, Zee Media Corporation Limited (ZMCL) English News Network, WION – World is One News has now been formally launched. Its formal launch with is followed by rolling out of a major marketing campaign aptly titled WION – Be One With the World.

The editorial team consists of experienced journalists, researchers and analysts with global exposure. With bureaus in 37 global locations, WION has international reach and multi-cultural staff adding local perspective to every global news story. WION is the first India based network to have its presence in regions like UK, USA, China, Russia and Africa making it South Asia’s first truly convergent, multi-media English News Network.

“A revolutionary product from the Zee Media stable, WION represents a sophisticated transition from the usual ‘Breaking News’ phenomenon. WION brings exclusive and insightful content that often escapes popular media. Targeting upscale viewers in India as well as the Indian diaspora, our endeavour is to showcase content that truly represents the spirit of South Asia with focus on India. Embracing our philosophy of ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam – The World is My Family’, through WION we believe that news will be the common thread that binds us all together,” said ZMCL executive director and COO Rajiv Singh.

The multi-city campaign will take off across various platforms including television, print, Rradio, OOH, DTH and digital. Leveraging the network strength, WION will further amplify its launch through a roadblock on more than 40 channels of ZEEL and ZMCL on 9 December. Phase I of the marketing campaign will focus on the India market, and it will gradually extend to other markets across the world in Phase II.

WION is a global news network that brings news from around the world but with a South Asian view. The goal of the channel is to engage and empower viewers through balanced and extraordinary storytelling. The channel aims to explore and understand the stake of South Asian region in world affairs by pushing the boundaries of innovation on digital, mobile and television platforms.

WION editor-in-chief Rohit Gandhi added, “In an increasingly divided and violent world, the content at WION is carefully curated keeping in mind the sensitivities of all regional identities. While the news genre already has different filters – American, British and Middle-East, there is no South Asian lens that helps the world understand the South Asian perspective on world affairs; WION aims to bridge this gap. WION targets a generation that is global, social, value-oriented, visual and technologically savvy. We tell stories relevant to a wider global audience and to the millennial generation that consumes news on the go. The news at WION is easy to consume without sacrificing in-depth analysis of issues.”

Gandhi further added: “While neutrality is journalism’s prime directive, and nothing comes between that, our TV and web platforms do have separate places set aside to foster positivity and inspiration culled from real life. WION Edge and Konversation are online series for sharing positive stories of people from India and around the world. On TV, whether it’s the on-location reporter, our anchors or guests, the conversation is always calm and orderly, with everyone given a chance to speak.”

WION offers an experience that is beyond news. It has a variety of content appealing to both younger and mature audience. WION will not only offer news, but also general entertainment content covering genres like lifestyle, human stories, animals, food, environment and fashion among others.

The presentation of content is innovative with use of visuals, timelines, graphics, on-ground live coverages, 360-degree interactive videos, flying drones and story app. The channel has interactive content to encourage participation from the viewer’s end. A big focus of the platform is on user generated content through its Citizen-Journalism App.

WION’s programming consists of a diverse line-up of shows from all genres. The shows on the channel comprise:

Name of the Show	Description	Anchors	Timeslot
Democracy & Dictatorship	Strategy and political show	Rohit Gandhi, Editor-in-Chief	Every Saturday at 9 pm
Tech it Out	Technology & Lifestyle show	Sahil Maniktala and Sejal Pandey	Every Friday at 10 pm
Unscripted	Entertainment show	Francesca Mascarenhas and Aaron Ian Lyngdoh	Every Friday at 9 pm
Gravitas	Prime time News Bulletin	News bulletins with invited guests	Weekdays at 9 pm
WION Wallet	Business show	Chaiti Narula	Weekdays at 9.30 am & 5.30 pm
WION Breakfast	Morning Bulletin show	Charu Sharma and Satyashree Gandham	Weekdays at 8 am
WION Sports	Sports show	Ayesha Sindhu	Weekdays at 7.30 pm

The channel is available across all DTH providers like Dish TV (#605), Tata Sky (#628), Airtel (#386), Videocon d2h (#367), Reliance BIG TV (#459) and all other leading cable networks.

December 8, 2016