afaqs! news bureau
Media

Major organisational changes in ZEEL to face the competition

ZEEL has appointed chief operating officers to head its various operations

The fast changing dynamics of media entertainment business has motivated one of the major players, Zee Entertainment Enterprises (ZEEL), to redefine the various key functions across the board within the organisation. The move has also resulted in redefining roles and responsibilities of key personnel in charge of various business entities of the group.

In an email interview with afaqs!, Punit Goenka, chief executive officer, ZEEL, says, “The last few months have been pretty significant for Zee as we did very well on multiple fronts. At the same time, media entertainment industry is going through a transition and the recent entry of new players has perpetuated the metamorphosis. It’s time for us to take stock and get prepared to manage growth for future.”

Major organisational changes in ZEEL to face the competition
Punit Goenka
The group has identified four key existing and potential businesses to be headed by individual independent chief operating officers. The businesses have been divided under various heads such as national channels, regional channels, international operations and movie business.

Nitin Vaidya, director, regional cluster, is all set to be the chief operating officer in charge of national channels. He will also have the additional responsibility of handling regional channels in the Hindi speaking markets (HSM). The business vertical under him is inclusive of all the generic general entertainment channels such as Zee TV, Zee Smile, Zee Next, Zee Cinema, Zee Jagran, Zee Music, Zee Café, Zee Trendz and other future pay channels.

Business interests under regional channels will include channels covering markets such as Bangla, Marathi, Punjabi and Gujarati. The cluster of regional channels in South India covers Telugu, Kannada and Tamil offerings. G Ramprasad, chief operating officer, regional channels, will take care of these markets.

International operations are to be headed by Bharat Ranga, chief operating officer, international operations. He will oversee sales and revenue for global markets and will be handling the task of customising the ZEEL offerings for the global audience.

The movie business of the group will handle production, marketing, sales and distribution of movies in various languages. The group is yet to name the personnel responsible for spearheading its movie business.

Different corporate functions, too, have been put in place to assist and support the various business interests of the group. Key areas of administration identified by the group include functions such as revenue, finance, strategy and business development, human resource and a full-fledged corporate and PR wing.

Joy Chakraborty, chief revenue officer, will take care of advertisement and subscription revenue accruing on account of all the domestic channels. Neil Chakraborty has been designated head, strategy and business development. Punit Goenka, chief executive officer, ZEEL, will be assisted by two executive assistants, namely Vijay Anand and Vikas Somani.

The portfolio of corporate communications for the Essel Group (the business house with interest in media business through ZEEL) will be headed by R Nand Kumar, president, corporate communications.

Have news to share? Write to us atnewsteam@afaqs.com