GECs
MTV India gets jazzed up in 2005
MUMBAI: This will come as sweet news to Indian lovers of jazz music. MTV India has teamed up with the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz in the US, Black Entertainment Television (Bet) Jazz and the US State Department for the 2005 India Jazz and Heritage Tour from 12-20 January in Mumbai.
One of the highlights will be an evening concert at the Gateway of India. In India the event will air on VH1. Promotion will start in a few days time on MTV.and VH1.
American jazz artists scheduled to appear include Ravi Coltrane, Al Jarreau, George Duke and Earl Klugh. MTV India MD Alex Kuruvilla said, “Music knows no boundaries. MTV India is proud to be associated with the historic performances by American Jazz giants and to be a part of bringing together people and countries, joining forces in the fight against HIV/Aids.”
Bet Jazz executive VP and GM Paxton Baker said, “This week-long event is designed to encourage the interaction between Indian and American cultures. The tour and its various components will also give us the opportunity to increase HIV-Aids awareness, which has become a major social issue in India.”
The 2005 India Jazz and Heritage Tour commences in Mumbai with a master class featuring Ravi Coltrane and participants from the Monk Institute and Indian students. The final Mumbai event will be a charity luncheon with proceeds donated to HIV-AIDS research.
Members of the tour will travel to New Delhi and perform master classes and give lectures in various schools. A musical birthday tribute to Martin Luther King Jr. featuring film footage of his visit there in the 1960s has also been planned. The tour will include a trip to Agra and the Taj Mahal.
BET Jazz is Viacom’s 24 Hour jazz channel. It features many of the finest names in jazz through in-studio performances, festivals, concert coverage, and celebrity interviews. Many of the shows
feature original programming, as well as historic footage, unavailable on any other television network.
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.
