MAM
Surrogate ads by liquor companies not disallowed by SC
MUMBAI: The apex court of India has denied entertaining a plea that sought a ban on surrogate advertisements such as soda TVCs and ads by liquor companies. Surrogate advertising is a form of advertising that is used to promote products such as cigarettes and alcohol for which advertisements are prohibited.
A bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar dismissed the plea filed by a law student who had also sought a direction to the central government to frame guidelines to disallow such advertisements, PTI reported.
The bench that also comprised Justices S K Kaul and D Y Chandrachud wondered if the petitioner thought the soda advertisements mad people drink alcohol more, and that they disagreed.
The apex court was hearing a plea filed by Kartikey Bhatt, a Rajasthan resident, who claimed that the Cable Television Networks Rules stated that no advertisement shall be permitted which indirectly or directly promotes production, sale or consumption of any intoxicants such as liquor.
However, the government has failed to carry out its duty of ensuring implementation of the law, and surrogate advertisements were being illegally telecast on cable services without seeking prior permission, the plea said.
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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.
