MAM
LeEco appoints Divya Dixit as director content marketing for India; will launch VOD platform in FY 2016
MUMBAI: The global internet and technology conglomerate LeEco also called as the Netflix of China for its content eco-system has appointed Divya Dixit as its new director of content marketing for India. Dixit will be based in Mumbai. In her new role, she will look after the global content platform in digital space and will work towards building the brand’s presence stronger in India. Dixit was unavailable for comment.
The company will focus on embedded content for TV and mobile phones and will also launch its own direct content platform in this financial year. For this new platform, the internet and technology organization will acquire content as well as produce substantial hours of original content for its audience.
In January this year, the company had tied-up with Eros Now for video-on-demand (VOD) and YuppTV for TV content streaming. While its partnership with Yupp TV will give its users access to YuppTV’s catalogue of live TV channels, the deal with Eros Now will allow the on-the-go users to watch Bollywood content and regional movies on LeEco phones.
It has now renewed its exclusive partnership with Flipkart for the launch of its next phone in India. An agreement to this effect was signed yesterday by LeEco India COO smart electronic business Atul Jain and Flipkart VP business Anil Goteti.
The international firm headquartered in Beijing has already set up a service office in Delhi while its content division will be based in Mumbai. The company’s technical office is based in Bangalore. All the executives in the top management from India will report to the senior management in Beijing. The company is undergoing restructuring inform sources.
Earlier, the company had launched two smart phones in India, Le 1s and Le Max, which were available exclusively on Flipkart. With a record of bringing path breaking innovations to the country, the LeFans will see entertainment playing a whole new way and can expect a super announcement on 3 May 2016.
LeEco also launched an all-electric concept on 26 April 2016 that aspires to beat Tesla at its own game. It presented its first self-driving automobile, dubbed LeSEE Super EV, at the Beijing Motor Show and described it as a smart connected electric vehicle.
AD Agencies
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.
