Zee board approves organization restructuring

Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd’s board of directors has endorsed a new organizational framework proposed by managing director and CEO Punit Goenka.

Goenka, who will assume direct charge of the domestic broadcast business, had proposed to leverage synergies among the core business segments which include broadcast, digital, movies and music.

The new structure, effective immediately, will see Siju Prabhakaran, who has led the south cluster of channels take additional responsibility for the west cluster, and report to Goenka.

Samrat Ghosh, who has led the east cluster of channels, will take additional responsibility for north and premium clusters, while Ruchir Tiwari will continue to lead the Hindi movies cluster.

Vishnu Shankar will continue to lead &TV and the free-to-air segment, and Ashish Sehgal will be responsible for integrated advertisement sales for the broadcast and digital business, to maximize value for the advertisers with a sharp focus on profitability. All of them will report to Goenka.

In this enhanced role, for the digital business revenue, Sehgal will also report to Amit Goenka. However, for the broadcast business revenue he will continue to report to the MD and CEO, Zee said.

Meanwhile, Amit Goenka will continue to lead the digital business for the company, taking direct charge of original content (including movies). He will assume additional charge of the international broadcast business, enterprise technology and broadcast operations and engineering, leveraging synergies between the business segments to drive higher growth. He will continue to report to the MD and CEO.

Umesh Bansal will lead the movie business for the company, supervising content production, strategy, movies acquisition and syndication. He will report to the MD and CEO.

Anurag Bedi will continue to lead the music business and enhance the vertical’s contribution to the company’s bottom-line, while reporting to Goenka. All corporate functions will continue to report to him as well, Zee said.

“We are confident that a lean team under the leadership of Punit, will enable the company to achieve its set goals and priorities for the future, further generating higher value for the shareholders,” R. Gopalan, chairman, ZEE, said in a statement.

Earlier this week, Zee withdrew its application from the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) concerning the implementation of its merger with Sony Entertainment Enterprises (Culver Max).

The decision would enable the company to pursue growth and evaluate strategic opportunities to generate higher value for all shareholders, the company said.

Over the past few weeks, the company has seen a series of senior-level exits, including Rahul Johri, president of business; Punit Misra, president of content and international markets; Nitin Mittal, president and group chief technology officer; and Shariq Patel, chief business officer, Zee Studios.

“In line with our approach towards maintaining a sharp focus on profitability, the new structure encompasses a more resilient team for the organization to ensure agility and collaboration,” Goenka said in the statement. LiveMint