Akhil Bhalla takes charge as product head, live and connected TV at NDTV

MUMBAI: NDTV has made a decisive play in the fast-evolving world of digital video by appointing Akhil Bhalla as product head, live and connected TV. The move signals the network’s intent to sharpen its live and connected television offerings as audiences increasingly switch between screens, platforms and formats.

In the new role, Bhalla will lead strategy and growth across NDTV’s live and connected TV products, with a clear focus on building scalable content experiences, deepening audience engagement and strengthening the network’s digital video ecosystem. In simple terms, the brief is to make live news smarter, smoother and more compelling wherever viewers choose to watch.

Sharing the news, Bhalla said, “I’m happy to share that I’m starting a new position as product head, live and connected TV at NDTV.” It is a statement that marks a fresh chapter in a career spanning newsroom floors, broadcast control rooms and high-growth streaming platforms.

Bhalla joins NDTV after a significant stint at what was formerly Disney+ Hotstar, now JioHotstar, where the executive played a key role in building the platform’s news ecosystem from the ground up. That journey included aggregating more than 45 national and regional news channels across languages, shaping news as a product, and blending live feeds, clips and video on demand into a unified user experience. The result was not just scale, but also a reported tenfold jump in revenues within two years.

Before streaming entered the mainstream, Bhalla spent years in traditional broadcast media, holding senior editorial roles at Focus News, Zee News and Aaj Tak, and earlier reporting for BBC Hindi and Reuters-linked services. The blend of editorial instinct and product thinking now finds a new test ground at NDTV.

As connected televisions become the new living room staple, NDTV’s latest appointment suggests the network wants its news to travel easily from studio to smartphone to smart TV, without losing pace, purpose or personality.