MAM
NDTV Media, MSN India poised to ink ad sales deal
MUMBAI: Trust him to pull it off and marketing whiz Raj Nayak has done it once again. This time, he’s shaking hands with MSN India for an undisclosed multi-million dollar deal to sell space on the portal.
According to information available with Indiantelevision.com, NDTV Media, which is spearheaded by Nayak as its chief executive, is poised to ink an agreement with MSN India (part of Bill Gates’ widespread infotech empire) to sell and market advertising space for the latter.
Considered to be one of the biggest deals in the Indian advertising and marketing industry, the NDTV Media-MSN India pact, according to industry sources, could range anywhere between $ 1 million to $ 3.5 million.
NDTV Media, a working joint venture between Nayak and the Prannoy Roy-promoted NDTV Ltd, would end up getting 15-20 per cent commission from selling space for MSN India. The present industry norm is that the ad concessionaires get 15 per cent as fee.
The mandate for space selling of MSN India, reportedly, was being handled by another television company along with another outfit till now.
Pursued by Indiantelevision.com on the MSN-NDTV deal, which has set the local industry abuzz with excitement, Nayak today refused to commit himself to any details saying, “It’s too premature to comment on the issue.”
However, industry sources insist that the agreement is on course and it’s only a matter of time before it is made public soon. Two other big agencies were also in the fray, amongst others.
Marketing and ad sales company NDTV Media was set up after Nayak left Star India in 2003 and later joined forces with Roy who was then in the process of establishing his news channels, NDTV 24X7 and NDTV India.
At present, NDTV Media looks after the ad sales and marketing activities of the existing NDTV channels, apart from other similar activities that Roy’s company undertake in India and abroad.
In a rare interview to Indiantelevision.com in January 2004, when asked about the agenda of NDTV Media, Nayak had said, “Once that is done (establishment of NDTV channels), one of our priorities is to then look at what are the other things we want to do. Doing similar kinds of work – sales, marketing, research, programme syndication, events for other channels, which are not in competition with NDTV.”
MSN India seems to an extension of the aforementioned belief.
MUMBAI: In India’s fast-moving payments race, Visa has just swiped in a new leader. The company has named Suresh Sethi as its India country head, marking a key leadership shift as it sharpens its focus on digital payments growth in the market. Sethi steps into the role following his recent exit from Protean eGov Technologies, where he served as chief executive officer. He succeeds Sandeep Ghosh, who has moved on after more than four years at Visa to pursue an external opportunity.
The appointment comes at a time when Visa is doubling down on its expansion strategy across India and the wider region, deepening partnerships and accelerating adoption in an increasingly competitive digital payments ecosystem.
Sethi brings with him a broad, cross-market perspective shaped by decades of experience across corporate banking, retail financial services, mobile money and large-scale government technology initiatives. He began his career at Citigroup, where he spent 14 years working across India, Africa, South America and the United States, focusing on transaction banking services within the corporate bank.
His appointment signals a blend of institutional experience and market familiarity qualities that could prove critical as Visa navigates a landscape where fintech innovation, regulatory evolution and consumer adoption are all accelerating at once.
As digital payments in India continue to scale rapidly, the leadership change underscores a simple reality, in a market where every tap, scan and swipe counts, who leads the charge can matter just as much as the technology itself.
