MAM
Channel Factory onboards Alex Littlejohn as MD, APAC
Mumbai: Channel Factory, the global brand suitability and YouTube measurement programme partner, has brought on board Alex Littlejohn as managing director (MD) to spearhead its growth in the APAC region.
In his new role, Littlejohn will be responsible for growing the brand’s existing operations in Singapore and will be tasked with launching the business into the broader APAC region with local offices across SEA and Australia slated for launch in Q4 2021, said the press statement.
Littlejohn has extensive experience in scaling adtech businesses having held the position of president international for Adconion Media Group for eight years where he was responsible for growing the team from a standing start to over 250 employees across eight European and four APAC markets. Following Adconion’s acquisition by Singtel (SGX), he served at Amobee as senior vice president for APAC.
“Alex clearly brings years of incredibly valuable experience to Channel Factory and we could not be more excited to welcome him to the team,” said Channel Factory founder & CEO, Tony Chen. “His impressive record and successful wins speak for themselves and we have full confidence in him to lead our business growth across the APAC region in each local market as we increase our global footprint and push the ad industry to be more conscious while we approach a new decade of recovery and regeneration.”
Littlejohn has been recognised in the 40 most influential people under 40 years in the media and marketing twice, on two continents, and has been awarded multiple times in multiple markets for his contributions to the industry.
“I am excited to be joining Channel Factory at such a pivotal time for the business,” said Littlejohn. “Our Mission is to build a better Video ecosystem that connects creators, brands, and consumers, and as one of only seven accredited YouTube measurement partners globally, I am excited to further develop the existing Channel Factory operations in the region.”
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Abhay Duggal joins JioStar as director of Hindi GEC ad sales
The streaming giant brings in a seasoned revenue hand as the battle for Hindi television advertising heats up
MUMBAI: Abhay Duggal has a new desk, and JioStar has a new weapon. The media and entertainment veteran has joined JioStar as director of entertainment ad sales for Hindi general entertainment channels, adding 17 years of hard-won revenue experience to one of India’s most powerful broadcasting operations.
Duggal is no stranger to big portfolios or bruising markets. Before joining JioStar, he spent a brief stint at Republic World as deputy general manager and north regional head for ad sales. Before that, he put in three years at Enterr10 Television, where he ran the north region for Dangal TV and Dangal 2, two of India’s leading free-to-air Hindi channels. The north alone accounted for more than 50 per cent of total channel revenue on his watch, a number that tends to get attention in any sales meeting.
His longest stint was at Zee Entertainment Enterprises, where he spent over six years rising to associate director of sales. There he commanded the Hindi movies cluster across seven channels, owned more than half of north India’s revenue across flagship properties including Zee TV and &TV, and closed marquee sponsorships across the Indian Premier League, Zee Rishtey Awards and Dance India Dance. He also handled monetisation for the English movies and entertainment cluster and the global news channel WION, a portfolio that would stretch most sales teams twice his size.
Earlier in his career Duggal closed what was then a Rs 3 crore single deal at Reliance Broadcast Network, one of the largest in Indian radio at the time, before that he helped launch and monetise JAINHITS, India’s first HITS-based cable and satellite platform.
His edge, by his own account, lies in marrying data and instinct: translating audience trends, inventory signals and client demands into long-term partnerships built on cost-per-rating-point discipline rather than short-term deal chasing. In a media landscape being reshaped by streaming, fragmented attention and AI-driven advertising, that kind of rigour is increasingly rare and increasingly valuable.
JioStar, which blends the scale of Reliance’s Jio platform with the content firepower of Star, is doubling down on its advertising business at precisely the moment the Hindi GEC market is getting more competitive. Bringing in someone who has spent nearly two decades doing exactly this, across some of India’s most watched channels, is a pointed statement of intent. Duggal has spent his career turning audiences into revenue. JioStar is clearly betting he can do it again, and bigger.
