GECs
‘Desperate Housewives’ take ABC to the top
MUMBAI: For Disney’s beleaguered ABC network desperate for hits Desperate Housewives has delivered the goods..
21.3 million viewers watched the premiere episode on Sunday night making it the most watched series for the week ended 3 October 2004.
The drama takes a darkly comedic look at suburbia, where the secret lives of housewives aren’t always what they seem. Looking down on her friends and family isn’t a way of life for Mary Alice Young (Brenda Strong)… it’s a way of death.
One day, in her perfect house, in the loveliest of suburbs, Mary Alice ended her life. Now she’s taking us into the lives of her family, friends and neighbors, commenting from her elevated point of view.
Her small circle of girlfriends are wondering why one of their own would do something so rash… and so messy. There’s Susan Mayer (Teri Hatcher), the divorcee and single mom who will go to extraordinary lengths for love. Lynette Scavo played by Felicity Huffman is the ex-career woman who traded the boardroom for boredom, mixed with moments of sheer panic as the mother of four unmanageable kids.
An AP report has however noted that Desperate Housewives would not have been the week’s number one show had the Bush-Kerry debate not wiped out part of strong Thursday lineups on CBS and NBC.
CBS’ Survivor: Vanuatu was the second highest rated series for the week with 19.9 million viewers. Fox is clearly feeling the heat of American Idol’s absence. During the week not one show from the Rupert Murdoch owned broadcaster attracted over eight million viewers. Its most popular programme Trading Spouses was way down at number 53 for the week.
The poor start has already claimed one casualty: Fox announced that its boxing reality series The Next Great Champ would now move to Fox Sports Net. Last week’s edition had only 4.4 million viewers.
One show that benefitted greatly from the Bush Kerry debate was Comedy Central’s The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.. On Thursday night 2.4 million viewers tuned in In India the global version of the show airs on CNN on Sunday night.
For the week, CBS averaged 12.3 million viewers. ABC had 10.8 million. NBC had 9.7 million while Fox was fourth with five million.
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.
