Kevin Vaz joins Viacom 18 as CEO of TV business

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Kevin Vaz has formally joined Viacom18 as the CEO of its TV business, sources privy to the development have said. He was previously the head of the entertainment business at Disney Star. His last day at the company was June 13.

Kevin's mandate will be to drive the company's overall TV business, which comprises almost 38 channels across multiple genres including general entertainment, movies, regional, and kids. In addition to this, he will also spearhead the regional content and marketing for the digital business. Two people familiar with the matter said that the announcement about Vaz's appointment was made at a town hall meeting on Monday.

The town hall happened in the presence of Reliance Jio chairman Akash Ambani, who joined through video conference, and Uday Shankar, who is now on the board of Viacom18 following Bodhi Tree Systems' stake acquisition in the company. Viacom18 didn't offer any comments until the time of filing this report. Sources further state that Jyoti Deshpande, who is the CEO of Viacom18, will transition out of this role to focus exclusively on Jio Studios as its head.

Deshpande is also the President of Reliance Industries' Media Business. Currently, Anil Jayaraj is the CEO of the sports business, while Gourav Rakshit is the COO of the digital business. One of the sources tracking the developments said that the company intends to rope in a separate CEO for the digital business comprising JioCinema.

Viacom18 is merging its streaming platform Voot with JioCinema. «Viacom18 will eventually have separate CEOs for TV and digital businesses,» the source said on condition of anonymity. Vaz has worked with Disney Star (earlier Star India) for more than 20 years and has held a number of important roles,