ZEE TV SACKS PROGRAMMING HEAD; SEEKS
CONSOLIDATION
In a move that shocked the entire Indian
television industry, Zee Telefilms Ltd (ZTL) issued marching
orders to its programming head, Vishnu Patel, along with
two general managers in charge of finance and legal affairs
last week.
The three executives were asked to go with allegations of
corruption hanging over their heads. Additionally, two senior
executives, in charge of events and finance, handed in their
resignations a couple of days before the sacking. A communiqué
from the CEO Vijay Jindal informed ZTL employees that "we
as a growing and evolving organisation need to protect our
corporate fiber from such virus-like infections." The three
sacked executives are alleged to have asked undue favours
from producers wanting to get their series approved and
telecast on Zee TV. They were part of the core team created
by Jindal when he took up his position in the network a
couple of years ago. Producers had for long complained of
harassment by the program clearance committee, which consisted
of the sacked executives. Investigations into these allegations
were on for at least three to four months by the ZTL management.
Chairman Subhash Chandra had a closed door meeting with
Jindal before the decision to jettison the employees was
taken. Patel says the allegations are baseless, that he
is innocent and he is being made a scapegoat.
In another development, the company is seeking to bring
the Zee Network's international operations in the US, UK,
South Africa, Mauritius, and Canada into its fold. The holding
company of these operations is to be merged with ZTL if
shareholders give their approval at the meeting on 26 March.
The ZTL share continued on its new-high-seeking spree last
week. It crossed Rs 1,000 to touch a peak of Rs 1,054 before
falling back in the Rs 900 range over the weekend.
