Disney merger in sight, Viacom18 rejigs top roles

livemint.com:

MUMBAI : Mumbai: Reliance Industries Ltd-owned Viacom18 has brought its entertainment businesses under two top executives, in an overhaul ahead of its $8.5-billion merger with Disney’s India unit. As part of the new structure, Kiran Mani, who joined the company as chief executive of digital business (JioCinema) in November last year, will lead the digital and sports businesses, while the entire content business will be under Kevin Vaz, who joined as CEO - broadcast in July last year. Under the new structure, Vaz will oversee content clusters - general entertainment, English youth and music, kids and live events - for both linear TV and digital.

He will also oversee the movie studio business, housed under Viacom18 Studios. Mani’s overall mandate will include digital product, subscriber management, ad tech (payment discovery), monetization, P&L (except entertainment content) and influencer marketing, in addition to the sports business. Interestingly, sales of linear sports channels will also be under Mani’s ambit.

Anil Jairaj, CEO of Viacom18 Sports, who earlier reported to the board, will now report to Mani under the new structure. Mint has seen a copy of the office communication regarding the changes. “There is a new structure in place, with both Kiran and Kevin working together as two co-CEOs.

While Kiran is in charge of digital, tech and sports, all content is with Kevin. This has clearly ruffled some feathers and not all leaders are happy with the new structure. Already, the original leadership team of Viacom18 has seen massive changes over the last year," said a senior executive at Viacom18, refusing to be identified.