MUMBAI: Sahara has roped in Sandeep Singh as the head of marketing and ad sales for the networks’ television news channels and print publications.
Speaking to Indiantelevision.com, Sahara India Media and Entertainment’s senior vice-president Ambikanand Sahay said, “Singh has joined us and will be responsible for driving ad sales and marketing for all our print and TV news channels. Satish Menon will continue to play a guardian’s role.”
Sahara TV president Menon was earlier handling ad sales of Sahara news channels in addition to the network’s entertainment channel. He will continue to handle bouquet selling of Sahara’s group channels.
Singh was earlier with Sab TV as vice president ad sales. Prior to that he was heading ad sales in ETC Networks.
Tag: Sahara News
-
Sandeep Singh joins Sahara News as head of marketing, ad sales
-
DK Pandey to head Sahara news project
MUMBAI: Sahara India Media & Entertainment (SIME) seems to be making a serious attempt at pulling up its socks and make a fight of a seemingly losing news battle.
With a view to beef up the channel management of its news channels — five at the moment, including the national news channel — Sahara has roped in a media veteran in DK Pandey as senior vice-president.
Pandey, whose appointment comes into effect from 28 January, will be overseeing the overall management of the existing and future news channels, apart from being the head of all Sahara media properties’ bureaux.
He has also been named to undertake the areas of content pertaining to broadcast as well as the print medium.
Pandey will be reporting to SIME senior vice president and former print medium journalist Ambikanand Sahay.
Contacted by indiantelevision.com today, Sahay, who has had a long stint at The Times of India in various senior positions, says, “Mr Pandey is a seasoned professional who has the right sort of experience to undertake the mandate given to him.”
Sahay pointed out that all the bureaux of Sahara properties — both TV and print — have now been merged to bring in a synergy. This also means that all channel and bureau heads will be reporting to Pandey.
Pandey is an alumina of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur and Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. His association with media companies includes heavyweights like Times of India, Zee Telefilms (where he headed MSO Siti Cable at one time) and Reliance Infocomm. At Reliance, Pandey spent spent several years and is considered to have been part of the core team that set up Reliance Infocomm.
The appointment of Pandey is significant as it points to the renewed efforts being put in to beef up content and other aspects of marketing and distribution. Recently, as reported by indiantelevision.com, SIME got itself a senior distribution professional, Tapas Roy, from Siti Cable.
Roy had been recruited to look after the north and eastern markets, but after the departure of Mohan Raj, who looked after the western and southern markets, Roy has been named the national distribution head for all Sahara channels, including the entertainment one.
-
Zee News claims best of the rest status among affluent adults
MUMBAI: Is the “Sabse se Pehla” (the first) news channel becoming “Sabse (bar one) aage”?
An official communiqué issued by Zee’s news arm asserts that among affluent adults (TG AB 25+) it is ahead of rivals NDTV India, Star News, Sahara News, and DD News .
Quoting the latest TAM ratings for the week ended 31 July in Hindi speaking markets TG AB 25+, the communiqué informs that the channel has surged far ahead of its competitors with 18.9 per cent channel share.
The channel also claims that the stickiness quotient is high, what with the time spend per viewer on Zee News is more than that of NDTV India and Star News.
Zee News has three more programmes in the pipeline – a daily sports bulletin Action Replay, 40 news nuggets packed in a half-hour bulletin News Top 10+ and Mumbai Fast – one hour show of Mumbai unplugged.
It ascribes its resurgence to its alert bureaus, authentic facts and spot reporting much ahead of its rivals. That apart, the channel claims that analysis of the top news has helped put events in perspective and provide better understanding to its viewers.
Haunting pictures of Kumbakonam school fire, news from the remote site following the derailment of the Matsyagandha Express, live coverage of the Venus transit, special coverage by Javed Miandad of the Asia Cup 2004, are among the the highlights that helped the channel score over its rivals, the release states.
Zee News has also come out on top in the programming section with its Crime File, the release says. In addition, a daily crime bulletin Crime Reporter, Jawab Dehi, weekly fashion bulletin Yeh Raat Mastani have slowly gained popularity.