MAM
Network18 names Abhinay Chauhan chief growth officer, government affairs
From EVP to chief growth officer, a promotion that puts public sector money firmly in his sights
Network18 has just handed Abhinay Chauhan a title that says exactly what he is being trusted to do: grow the business, and grow it through government doors. Elevated from executive vice president to chief growth officer, government affairs, Chauhan’s promotion is less a reshuffle and more a recognition of a job already being done well.
His remit has always been unglamorous but lucrative: state governments and public sector undertakings, the kind of clients that do not make headlines but do make balance sheets healthier. Chauhan has spent his Network18 tenure building and deepening exactly these relationships, spotting new revenue lines within a vertical that most media houses treat as an afterthought.
The new role sharpens that focus considerably. Chauhan will now drive government-related revenues across Network18’s language channels, its digital properties, Forbes India and AETN18, home to HistoryTV18. It is a wide canvas, spanning broadcast and digital, English and vernacular, business news and lifestyle content, all stitched together under one government affairs strategy. For a media conglomerate keen on integrating its broadcast and digital ecosystems, having one person own the government relationship end to end is smart architecture, not just a fancy designation.
Chauhan arrives at this moment with the right pedigree. Before Network18, he was vice president at BloombergQuint, the business and financial news platform, where he handled operational strategy and ran cross-functional teams, skills that translate rather neatly into managing a portfolio as sprawling as this one. Network18’s bet is straightforward: government affairs is no longer a side desk, it is a growth vertical, and Chauhan is being trusted to prove it.
