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Shailesh Soni named VP and Head Technology Partnerships at SPNI
SonyLIV tech veteran steps up after 7-year run driving OTT scale
MUMBAI: From code to command, it’s a promotion scripted in streaming speed. Shailesh Soni has been elevated to vice president and head of technology partnerships and planning at Sony Pictures Networks India, marking a new chapter in a career that has quietly powered some of India’s most visible digital platforms. Soni steps into the role after more than seven years within the network, most recently serving as associate vice president for SonyLiv Technology. During that stint, he led a full-scale overhaul of the streaming platform, helping drive user engagement during the pandemic-era surge and positioning SonyLiv among India’s leading OTT services.
His mandate now expands beyond platform engineering to partnerships and long-term technology planning areas that are increasingly central as broadcasters double down on digital ecosystems, cloud infrastructure and cross-platform integrations.
Over the years, Soni has built a reputation for operating at scale. He has led teams of over 400 members, managed large technology budgets, and driven vendor partnerships while ensuring compliance with global data privacy standards, including GDPR. His expertise spans OTT architecture, content delivery networks, cloud systems and observability tools essential building blocks in today’s streaming wars.
Before joining Sony, Soni held senior roles across the media-tech landscape, including leadership positions at Times Network, where he helped scale its digital platforms, and Accenture, where he worked on early iterations of large-scale streaming services, including projects linked to Star India’s Hotstar.
His career arc traces the evolution of India’s digital media industry itself from early web infrastructure at Rediff.com to today’s cloud-native, app-first streaming ecosystems.
With this elevation, Sony Pictures Networks India appears to be betting on deep in-house expertise to steer its next phase of growth, one where technology partnerships, platform scalability and data-led decision-making will likely define the playbook as much as content itself.
