GECs
100 women on the BBC
MUMBAI: Women will be better represented in the BBC’s global output in future, the BBC pledged as it launched a new season of programming, 100 Women.
The season will turn the spotlight onto women’s lives around the world, and kick start a drive to feature more women’s voices and women’s stories on the BBC’s global news channels – BBC World News, BBC.com and BBC World Service.
The 100 Women season of special reports, programmes and discussion will run during October 2013. It will culminate in a global conference where 100 women from around the world will assemble at new broadcasting house in London to discuss some of the crucial issues facing women today.
Editor of the 100 Women season Fiona Crack said: “We’re determined to make sure we are hearing women’s voices and telling women’s stories on all of the BBC’s global news channels. This season is a chance for us to look at the big picture and take stock of where we are with women’s rights around the world.”
“More women than ever are finishing school, getting jobs and making their way in politics and in business. But violence remains a real threat to millions of girls and women around the world. And what about the demands of balancing work and family life? We want to look both at how things are changing, and into the future to see where these trends may take us,” she added
Controller of Language Services Liliane Landor said: “This season comes in direct response to our audience’s feedback. Women have told us they want to hear themselves and their experiences better reflected and represented on the World Service.”
Starting from 1 October 2013, content will run on TV, radio and online, including: Katty Kay will report on how more US families now depend on women’s wages, Anne Soy will report on Uganda’s Nobel prize-winning midwife and the changes in maternal mortality in the country. With rape reporting doubling in the last year in India, authorities are looking at more ways to make women safer, including female police patrols in Delhi, Rupa Jha will look at how effective changes have been. While Karishma Vaswani will ask how this will change women’s lives and job opportunities with a moratorium on domestic workers being introduced from 2016 in Indosenia. Shaimaa Khalil will go home to Cairo to see what girls and women could learn from their sisters in Kurdistan about curbing the practice. VladSokhin will examine the extreme levels of violence against women in Papua New Guinea. Mishal Husain will interview Pakistani school girl, Malala Yusufzai in her first broadcast interview since surviving being shot in the head by the Taliban last October.
The 100 women conference will be streamed on a live event page on the BBC News website and broadcast live in English on BBC World News TV and World Service radio, as well as by many of its 27 global languages services.
GECs
ZEEL overhauls sales structure to chase growth across TV and digital platforms
New structure sharpens digital push as viewing habits fragment fast
MUMBAI: Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. is reshuffling its sales playbook as it looks to keep pace with a fast-changing media landscape, where audiences are scattered, screens are multiplying and advertisers are following the data.
According to media reports, the rejig is anchored in the company’s push to build a more integrated, data-led monetisation engine, one that can straddle both traditional television and fast-growing digital platforms with equal ease.
At the heart of the move is a reworked sales architecture designed to deliver cross-platform solutions. With connected TV gaining ground and digital consumption surging, ZEEL is aligning its teams to move quicker, think broader and sell smarter.
The restructuring is being led by chief operating officer, advertisement revenue, Sandeep Mehrotra, at a time when the company says it is seeing tremendous growth. The idea is simple: match the right talent to the right opportunity in a market that is anything but static.
As part of the overhaul, several long-serving executives have been elevated to chief sales officer roles across regions and content clusters. Sanjoy Chatterjee will head the east market, while Gunjarav Nayak takes charge of the west along with high-margin verticals such as hmg, brand works, intellectual properties and digital sales. Rajnish Gupta will oversee bengaluru and chennai markets alongside the kannada and tamil clusters.
In other key moves, Divjyot Dhanda will lead hyderabad and kochi markets and manage zee tv, zee keralam and the telugu cluster. Roshan Vasu Kotian will supervise a diverse portfolio including Zee Marathi, &tv, Zee Punjabi, Zee Anmol, Big Magic and Zee Biskope.
The company is also strengthening its bench, appointing national sales heads across retail, regional clusters, digital and brand solutions. Ankur Kapila’s appointment to lead digital sales signals a sharper push into a segment that continues to outpace traditional formats.
Behind the scenes, dedicated strategy and operations roles have been carved out for both linear and digital businesses. Nitin Shetty, Rajkiran Shrivastav and Priya Nambiar will take on key responsibilities to ensure the new structure runs with precision.
The broader aim is clear. ZEEL wants a bigger slice of advertising budgets that are steadily drifting towards digital and connected TV ecosystems. By integrating its offerings, the company hopes to deepen client relationships while unlocking new revenue streams.
The new structure takes effect immediately, with Mehrotra continuing to report to chief executive officer Punit Goenka and steer the company’s advertising revenue strategy. Senior executive Laxmi Shetty will support the transition, with her revised role expected to be announced soon.
In a market where content is everywhere but attention is scarce, ZEEL’s latest move is less about rearranging the org chart and more about staying in the game.
