Tell us what you think of the new afaqs! design
Ian's being crafted from a first-
thought into something good.
Chintamani Rao, chief executive officer, Times Global Broadcasting has decided to move out. He put in his papers a few days ago. However, his stepping down from the current position may not result in an exit from the Times Group. It is learnt that Rao may oversee a different vertical within the Times Group.
Though, an official announcement from the company is still awaited, sources within the company have confirmed Rao's exit from the current role. However, no confirmation could be sought on Rao's new responsibilities; sources indicate that talks were on in that direction.
 |
 |
It is also learnt that Rao's predecessor at Times Global Broadcasting, Sunil Lulla is likely to join back for his second stint. Lulla had moved out two years ago, when he partnered the Alva Brothers and Turner Broadcasting to launch a general entertainment channel, Real. Lulla was director, Real Global Broadcasting. However, the GEC was far from making a splash, and started airing repeat programmes within six months of its launch.
When afaqs! contacted, Lulla, he neither confirmed nor denied the development.
An out-and-out adman, Rao has been has been associated with agencies such as McCann Worldgroup, Lintas and O&M. His stint with broadcasting started four years ago with India TV. He has been with the Times Group since February 2008.
Rao spent close to two and half years at India TV. Rao is an economics graduate and an MBA from XLRI, Jamsedhpur.
Lulla started his career with Forbes, Forbes Campbell and Co., a Tata Group company, in 1984 as a management trainee. His next stint was at HTA (now JWT).
For about seven years, he handled various accounts at HTA, the largest one being Unilever.
Even though he was doing well in HTA, Lulla felt that an ad agency was not the right place to be in the long term. In 1991, Lulla joined HMV, an RPG company. It was with the Board for Institutional Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) then, on the verge of winding up or being bailed out by the government. His next destination was JWT, Taiwan and when returned back, he joined MTV.
After MTV, Lulla moved to Diageo - for a short while. After a year, he moved on and helped his friend, Pradeep Kar of Microland, form Indya.com, an Internet venture. After Indya.com was sold to STAR, Lulla moved to Sony Entertainment Television (SET) in 2002. Later he moved to Times Global Broadcasting to launch the company's first English news channel.
Till the time of filing the story, several attempts were made to contact Rao. But all calls went unanswered.
© 2010 afaqs!