GECs
1st India Television Summit ready to roll
MUMBAI: The clock is winding down for tomorrow’s first ever India Television Summit, organised by Indiantelevision.com and Media Partners Asia.
Endorsed by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, the landmark event brings together top industry executives and government agencies to discuss the commercial and regulatory factors shaping the future of the Rs 132 billion television industry in India, with comparative global perspectives.
At the time of writing, over 300 delegates had confirmed their participation for this exclusive power summit, with more registrations coming in.
Speakers for the one-day summit include – Federal Communications Commission (the United States regulator) commissioner Kathleen Abernathy, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting secretary SK Arora, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India chairman Pradip Baijal, Sony Entertainment Television India CEO Kunal Dasgupta, Star India CEO Peter Mukerjea, Madison World chairman Sam Balsara, Sahara One CEO Shantonu Aditya, UTV CEO Ronnie Screwvala, Eastern Multimedia Co chairman Faizal N Syed, Reliance Infocomm president Prakash Bajpai, DSP Merrill Lynch Investment Banking/M&A senior vice president Saurabh Agarwal, Morgan Stanley TMT Investment Banking head Paul Aiello, CLSA Media Investment Banking head Simon Dewhurst, Dish TV CEO Sunil Khanna, Tata Sky Ltd CEO Vikram Kaushik, NDS Asia Pacific vice president and general manager Sue Taylor, Group M South Asia CEO Ashutosh Srivastava, CNBC TV18 CEO Haresh Chawla, Turner Entertainment Networks Asia vice president ad sales Soumitra Saha and TAM India CEO LV Krishnan .
The India Television Summit has been divided into five panels:
Regulatory Panel
Strategic Panel
Digital and Distribution Presentation (International)
Digital and Distribution Presentation (Domestic)
Niche Content Panel
Media Financing Panel
The sponsors for the Summit include Cartoon Network, CSG Systems, NDS, Pogo, Sahara One, Star TV and Tandberg Television. Bright Advertising is the outdoor partner and NDTV Profit is the telecast partner.
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.
