ITV

Tag: Rohit Bansal

  • Snapdeal appoints Anand Chandrasekaran as chief product officer

    Snapdeal appoints Anand Chandrasekaran as chief product officer

    MUMBAI: Online marketplace Snapdeal has appointed Anand Chandrasekaran as chief product officer.

     

    Chandrasekaran most recently served as chief product officer at Bharti Airtel, where he was responsible for product conceptualization, design and delivery as well as driving strategic technology partnerships and product strategy.

     

    Snapdeal co-founder Rohit Bansal said, “We are very excited to have Anand on-board. He comes with 15 years of rich experience in building world class products for at scale digital businesses. Snapdeal is in a phase of hyper growth and I believe under Anand’s leadership we will set new benchmarks for intuitive and highly engaging products not just within India but globally as well.”

     

    Previously Chandrasekaran was with Yahoo, where he held roles of senior director of search products and member of search leadership as well as senior director for mobile.

     

    Chandrasekaran added, “I am truly excited to be a part of the young and dynamic team at Snapdeal. The company’s vision to solve a real and existing challenge in the country – that of access for consumers and of reach for small and medium businesses is very inspiring. I look forward to working towards building a highly scalable, sustainable, innovative and future ready technology platform that will be seen as an example for others to emulate in the years to come.”

     

    Prior to Yahoo, he worked with Openwave. Earlier, he co-founded Aeroprise Inc, which became the most-deployed solution worldwide for mobile service management, raised $7 million in funding and was later acquired by BMC Software.

  • Snapdeal strengthens m-commerce biz with MartMobi acquisition

    Snapdeal strengthens m-commerce biz with MartMobi acquisition

    MUMBAI: E-commerce venture Snapdeal is on an acquisition spree. After acquiring mobile transactions platform FreeCharge, earlier this year, the company has now acquired Hyderabad based mobile e-commerce platform MartMobi.

     

    With this, Snapdeal has augmented its mobile commerce capabilities by bringing onboard the MartMobi team that has created mobile specific platform and solutions for small and medium sized businesses in India and globally.

     

    MartMobi, which was founded by Pramod Nair and Satya Krishna Ganni, has core strengths in mobile technologies and has created instant mobile and tablet presence through mobile sites and native apps for e-commerce stores, small and medium sized businesses.

     

    The company enables seamless connectivity with the customers’ existing backend systems in addition to a real time analytics engine to improve conversions and user engagement.

     

    With its inclusion in the Snapdeal family, the MartMobi team will now focus on creating interfaces that enhance customer and seller experience on its mobile platforms. Realizing that the next wave of e-commerce customers are coming from mobile, Snapdeal is making substantial investments to strengthen this arm of business. The company already gets over 75 per cent of its sales via mobile-based transactions.

     

    Snapdeal was also the first company in the Indian e-commerce space to introduce a mobile application for its sellers. Around 70% of Snapdeal sellers now actively use this application to list products, manage inventory and effortlessly sell on the marketplace.

     

    Snapdeal co-founder Rohit Bansal said, “At Snapdeal, we are always on the lookout for talented people who come with special skill sets that will further enhance our capabilities. Being passionate about creating and building technology that solves real problems is another quality we look for in people. Mobile has been a key focus area for us and we have built technology capabilities to create a great experience for our buyers and sellers on this platform. The MartMobi team has built world-class products for mobile commerce, which will give a fillip to our existing mobile capabilities and we are confident that the team will further boost our mobile capabilities. We welcome them into the Snapdeal family.”

     

    MartMobi founder and former CEO Satya Krishna Ganni added, “We are very excited to become a part of the Snapdeal family. We strongly believe that new age technology innovations will happen here. The company has grown at a phenomenal pace in the last few years. With technology as the backbone, Snapdeal is solving the real challenges – of access faced by consumers and of reach faced by large and small retailers in India. Mobile is the way forward and all our efforts will be directed towards creating world class mobile technology at Snapdeal.” 

  • TV18 Q3-2015 consolidated operating results improve 40 per cent

    TV18 Q3-2015 consolidated operating results improve 40 per cent

    BENGALURU: TV18 Broadcast Limited’s (TV18) Board of Directors has approved the appointment of Rohit Bansal as an additional non-executive director on the board of the company. This was decided at the meeting held on 14 January 2015.

     

    Declaring the financial results, the company reported a 40 per cent improvement in operating profit (PBDIT – Profit before depreciation, interest and tax) in Q3-2015 at Rs 79.4 crore versus the Rs 56.7 crore in the immediate trailing quarter and 2.5 per cent more than the Rs 77.4 crore in the corresponding year ago quarter.

     

    The company reported a healthy 9.7 per cent and 15.6 percent growth in Income from Operations in Q3-2015 at Rs 607.2 crore as compared to the Rs 553.7 crore and the Rs 525.5 crore in Q2-2015 and Q3-2014 respectively.

     

    Year to date (9M-2015), the company’s Income from operations went up 20.2 per cent to Rs 1688.6 crore from Rs 1404.8 crore during 9M-2014. Operating PBDIT in 9M-2015 at Rs 183.8 crore was 30.8 per cent more than the Rs 140.6 crore in 9M-2014.

     

    Let us look at the other figures reported by TV18:

     

    Total Expense (TE) in Q3-2015 at Rs 542.3 crore was 6.8 per cent more than the Rs 508 crore in Q2-2015 and 17.9 per cent more than the Rs 460.1 crore in Q3-2014. TE in 9M-2015 at Rs 1559.8 crore was 20 per cent more than the Rs 1299.4 crore in 9M-2014.

     

    Programming cost was up 19.3 per cent in Q3-2015 at Rs 203.8 crore from Rs 170.9 crore in Q2-2015 and 42.9 per cent more than the Rs 142.6 crore in Q3-2014. Programming cost for 9M-2015 jumped 53 per cent to Rs 540.4 crore from Rs 353.3 crore in 9M-2014.

     

    TV18’s depreciation and amortisation (depreciation) at Rs 14.4 crore in Q3-2014 was 30.9 per cent more than the Rs 11.0 crore in Q2-2015 and was 19 per cent more than the Rs 12.1 crore in Q3-2014. The company’s depreciation expense in 9M-2015 at Rs 55 crore was 56.25 per cent more than the Rs 35.2 crore in 9M-2014.

     

    According to the company, CNBC-TV18 maintained its leadership as the No.1 channel in its genre with a market share of 55 per cent in Q3-2015. CNBC Awaaz also maintained its position as the No.1 channel in the Hindi business news genre with a market share of 61 per cent in the quarter and CNBC Bajar showed consistent and accelerated growth in viewership with a 182 percent increase in Q3-2015 over Q2-2015. CNN-IBN stood at No.2 position in the English General News category in Q3-2015 with a market share of 25 percent. Its Hindi GEC Colors was number two with a market share of 19 percent in this quarter. The company added that its regional news and entertainment group of channels under the ETV umbrella also performed well.
     

    Click here to read the review report

     

  • Network18 appoints new directors and a CFO

    Network18 appoints new directors and a CFO

    MUMBAI: New appointments have been made at the Reliance Industries’ controlled Network18.

     

    Rajiv Luthra and Dhruv Kaji have been appointed as independent directors of the company. Additionally, Hariharan Mahadevan has been appointed as the chief financial officer (CFO) and Kshipra Jatana as manager.

     

    The appointments are effective from 27 November. Earlier this year when Reliance Industries’ took over Network18, CFO RDS Bawa quit along with a host of other executives including CEO B Sai Kumar, COO Ajay Chacko, editor in chief Rajdeep Sardesai etc.

     

    As of now, founder Raghav Bahl, Rohit Bansal, Vinay Chhajlani, Deepak Parekh and Adil Zainulbhai are the directors of Network18.

  • SoftBank invests $627 million in Snapdeal

    SoftBank invests $627 million in Snapdeal

    MUMBAI:  Seeking to tap into the growing e-commerce market in India, the Japanese telecom giant SoftBank announced a $627 million investment in the home-grown retailer Snapdeal, becoming the largest investor in the company.

     

    This is the largest investment made by a single investor in an e-commerce company in India.  Other existing investors have also participated in this round with a significant undisclosed investment.

     

    Through this strategic investment and partnership with Snapdeal, the telecom group aims at strengthening its presence in India and leveraging synergies with its network of Internet companies around the world, according to the press release issued by the e-tailer.

     

    While on the other hand, Snapdeal, will use the investments in expanding its chain of fulfillment centres. It will also look to make 3-4 strategic acquisitions in the coming few months specifically in the area of mobile technology and is planning to set up an incubation centre to hone and harness start-up businesses in the mobile technology space within next six months.

     

    Talking about the investment, SoftBank chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son said, “Since SoftBank’s foundation, our mission has been to contribute to people’s lives through the Information Revolution. We believe India is at a turning point in its development and have confidence that India will grow strongly over the next decade. As part of this belief, we intend to deploy significant capital in India over the next few years to support development of the market.”

     

    Adding to that, SoftBank’s vice chairman Nikesh Arora reckoned, “India has the third-largest Internet user base in the world, but a relatively small online market currently. This situation means India has, with better, faster and cheaper Internet access, a big growth potential. With today’s announcement SoftBank is contributing to the development of the infrastructure for the digital future of India. We want to support the leaders and entrepreneurs of the digital future; Kunal and Rohit are two such great leaders.”

     

    Nikesh Arora will also be joining the board of Snapdeal as part of this strategic investment by the SoftBank Group.

     

    Morrison & Foerster LLP acted as legal advisor to advising SoftBank on India law matters.

     

     “Our entire team at Snapdeal is thrilled and honoured to have SoftBank as a strategic partner. With the support of Son-san and Nikesh, we are confident we will further strengthen our promise to consumers and create life changing experiences for 1 million small businesses in India,” said Snapdeal co-founder and CEO Kunal Bahl.

     

    Founded in 2010, the company also claims to have more than 25 million registered users and more than 50,000 business sellers. Earlier this year, Snapdeal had raised $133.77 million in a round led by eBay and $105 million from institutional investors including Temasek, Myriad, Tybourne, Blackrock Inc. and Premji Invest. Tata Sons Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata also made a personal investment into the company. 

  • Network 18 gets shareholder approval to borrow up to Rs 1800 cr

    Network 18 gets shareholder approval to borrow up to Rs 1800 cr

    MUMBAI: The board of directors (BOD) of Network 18, at its annual general meeting (AGM) seeked shareholder approval for allowing borrowing power up to Rs 1800 crore. At the same time the BOD of TV18 also requested the same for Rs 1500 crore.

     

    Both the resolutions were passed giving the BOD rights to borrow till the limit over and above the paid-up capital, free reserves and securities premium account.

     

    Another special resolution was to get an approval to offer or invite to subscribe to non-convertible debentures on private placement basis for both the companies.

     

    ‘Private placement’ means any offer of securities or invitation to subscribe securities (equity or securities that convert to equity) to a select group of persons by a company, other than by way of public offer, through issue of a private placement offer letter.

     

    Bothe the special resolutions were passed at the AGM with 100 per cent votes.

     

    The ordinary resolution passed at the meeting included, re-appointment of Raghav Bahl as a director who retires by rotation, appointment of Rohit Bansal and Vinay Chhajlani as directors and appointment of Deepak Parekh and Adil  Zainulbhai  as independent directors.

     

    Other resolutions include appointment of auditors and fixing their remuneration (ordinary resolution), approval of the remuneration of the cost auditor (ordinary resolution) and adoption of new articles of association of the company (special resolution).

     

    It has been four months since the Bahl-founded company was taken over by petrochemical conglomerate Reliance Industries’ chairman Mukesh Ambani.

     

  • Reliance Industries’ execs meet Network18 employees

    Reliance Industries’ execs meet Network18 employees

    MUMBAI: The Network18 office in Empire Mills Complex, in central Mumbai had some new visitors on 8 July 2014. Alok Agrawal who has been appointed as group COO of Network18, non-executive director Rohit Bansal and Reliance Industries Ltd’s media director Umesh Upadhyay held a town hall meeting with the entire staff of TV18 that includes CNN-IBN, IBN7, IBN Lokmat and History TV18.

     

    Attendees say it was a feel-good meeting and to reassure the employees about RIL’s honorable intentions for them all. The employees were told that the megacorp has full faith in them and hence had invested in the Network18 group and the objective was to make it a global brand.

     

    “There is no oil beneath your ground, if you are concerned about our motive,” is what one of them was heard to have said. Narrating an incident of the day founder Raghav Bahl finalised the deal, one of the members said, “Raghav on that day told the RIL executives that he had brought up the company to Rs 5000 crore and now you see if you can take it to Rs 50,000 crore.”

     

    They were further told that going forward the road ahead would be shared with them.  “It has been only 30 hours since the announcement of us acquiring Network18 has been made,” said one of them. “But you should know that 4G is very important for us as in the future smart phones are going to become very powerful. We are all happy that Raghav (Bahl) is continuing to give his support to the company.”

     

    A similar meeting had taken place a day earlier with the employees in the head office in Delhi where special assurance was given to the CNBC TV-18 employees that “they need not fear publishing any story.” Employees in both places were told that they can even report about RIL but not publish stories without any facts.

     

    One of the executives said that the main point in the whole RIL-Network18 deal was an exchange between two people (referring to Mukesh Ambani and Bahl) but everything else stays the same.

     

    A source from RIL says that the exercise is being conducted so that employees are personally met and assured rather than have them believe false rumours through the media. A few more meetings are expected to be held in the coming days.

  • I&B gives India TV time till 1 December to reply to notice

    I&B gives India TV time till 1 December to reply to notice

    MUMBAI / NEW DELHI: The ministry of information and broadcasting (MIB) has issued a notice to India TV for airing telephonic conversation with two terrorists holed up in Nariman House and The Oberoi Hotel.

    Confirming the development to Indiantelevision.com, a senior I&B official said India TV was given time till 1 December to reply to the notice. The ministry has demanded an explanation from the channel for affording a “platform to terrorists to espouse their cause” and will consider taking “stringent action” after that.

    Justifying India TV’s stance, COO Rohit Bansal said: “We will be sending a comprehensive reply to the ministry.”
    He said that the telephonic conversations helped security agencies give compelling answers on their accent and provide first-hand confirmation to the world that they had come from Pakistan and not from Hyderabad in the Deccan.

    “India TV partnered with the help of security agencies and helped generate specific and information that one terrorist, Shadullah, was using the mobile phone of a Swedish lady, Lisa Ringner, kept hostage in Room No.1856 at The Oberoi. The other terrorist Imran Babar, holed up in Nariman House, was using the phone belonging to another hostage, Holtzberg Gaverlein. India TV repeatedly asked these terrorists to surrender, as they were surrounded by security agencies and appealed to them to release the hostages.”

    Defending India TV’s position, Bansal further said: “All across the globe, video/audio messages of Osama Bin Laden and interviews of self-styled commanders of Hizbul Mujahideen and Lashker-e-Taiba have been broadcast by the media. These stories have exposed the perpetrators of terror. The entire objective of India TV was similar. We engaged the two terrorists in on-air conversations and secured vital information about their numbers, intentions and their foreign origin.”

  • G Krishnan to stay as NBA president

    G Krishnan to stay as NBA president

    NEW DELHI: News Broadcasters Association (NBA) has re-elected TV Today CEO G Krishnan as its president for the second term, at the first annual general meeting (AGM) held in the Capital today.

    Ibn18 Broadcast joint MD Sameer Manchanda holds the position of vice president for the second term while NDTV group CEO KVL Narayan Rao will continue as the treasurer.

    Krishnan said, “The future before us is very complex and challenging. The question we have to ask is, do we have the vision to move together to meet these challenges? The Indian broadcasting industry will change enormously and we will have to change willingly. Instead of reluctantly drifting into the future, we should drive the future using all the tools available to us, given of course that government policies adapt to new realities.”

    “The movement forward is a collective initiative supported with a sound policy environment. The industry and government must work together in a public private partnership to meet the new challenges and to strengthen the broadcasting industry rather than strangulate the industry. A meaningful dialogue is needed with the government and the various stakeholders,” he added.

    In addition NBA announced the names of office bearers and board of directors for 2008-09 which includes G Krishnan, Zee News CEO Barun Das, Times Global Broadcating CEO Chintamani Rao, KVL Narayan Rao, Independent News Services COO Rohit Bansal, Sameer Manchanda and Media Content and Communications Services (India) managing editor Shazi Zaman.

    The board of directors of NBA remains exactly the same as it was last year.

  • NBA to put in place content code based on self-regulation within 4 weeks

    NBA to put in place content code based on self-regulation within 4 weeks

    NEW DELHI: The News Broadcasters Association (NBA) will put systems in place for a content code based on self- regulation for news television channels within four weeks.

    “The Information and Broadcasting ministry is only entitled to give the licence and the rest should be left to the industry. NBA has worked out an answer to the Content Code where it has dealt with redressal mechanism, the details of which would be released in another four week’s time”, said TV Today Network CEO and NBA president G Krishnan while speaking at the second edition of the NT Summit, organised by Indiantelevision.com.

    The morning session on “The Commercial Imperative” focused on striking the right balance between the editorial and commercial imperatives.

    Distribution was emerging as a large cost that was hurting news broadcasters, speakers at the session agreed.

    “News channels are paying Rs 5 billion as carriage fee. The surge in distribution costs is killing the industry,” says Krishnan.

    The news TV business is raking in over Rs 10 billion in revenues and is employing over 25,000 people directly,” Krishnan added.

    The distribution issues, however, need to be sorted out. Times Now CEO Chintamani Rao blamed the huge pressure on cost of distribution as the major force impeding the growth process of the industry.

    Digicable CEO Jagjit Singh Kohli said digitalisation through Headend-In-The-Sky (HITS) and Cas was the only way out. “In analogue mode, a cable operator has a capacity to carry 70 to 80 channels. However the numbers of channels are increasing every day. So till the time complete digitalisation takes place, the situation will remain grim.”

    Kohli blamed the government for not coming out with policies on Cas extension and HITS. “We applied for HITS licence but the government said the policy was not ready yet,” he said.

    The market was being spoilt by new entrants from across all sectors. The ministry of information and broadcasting ministry recently cleared 33 licences for news channels.

    “A multi-media approach can only help succeed in this clutter. Single news channels will find it very difficult to exist,” said CNN IBN and IBN7 editor-in-chief Rajdeep Sardesai.

    While the commercial aspect is imperative, it should not be forgotten that news is a unique product which is built over a period of time and is known for its credibility and genuineness, Sardesai added. “The ‘Chinese wall’ between content advertisements and content should be maintained.”

    Star News CEO Ashok Venkataramani added, “Commercial side of the news business is very important..”

    The market has to rule. Zee News CEO Barun Das said that there was space for real news, evident from the success that the relaunched Zee News channel is enjoying.

    Tam India CEO L V Krishnan stated that news channels have drawn in new audiences and advertisers. The afternoon slot, for example, used to barely have any viewership. But now it has opened up women audiences. “Almost 44 per cent of viewership in the afternoon comes through women. There are 3400 new advertisers that have flocked in.”

    India TV COO Rohit Bansal stressed on the reason behind showing news and non news programmes, “The family audiences have certain choices, likes or dislikes; depending on that we create our programmes. We are also scoring on real news. The ministry of Information and Broadcasting looks at us as hard as it looks at any channel. And till date we have never faced a situation where we had to apologise for showing distressing content. As a news channel our job is to satisfy the regulator, advertisers and viewers and we are all trying our best to maintain the balance.”