MUMBAI: Niraj Dutt, the former number two in ad sales at Star India, who also quit about the same time as did Raj Nayak, is joining NDTV Media as executive vice-president.
 
Dutt will be based in Delhi. There will be no structural changes at NDTV Media with Rajnath Kamath continuing to head advertising sales and Avinash Kaul continuing to handle strategic planning, research and marketing, says NDTV Media CEO Raj Nayak.

At Star, Dutt, who reported directly to Nayak, was fully responsible for the sales of all the channels in the network with all the VP's reporting to him.

After Dutt quit Star, he was keen to pursue his own business. However, things did not work out as he had planned and therefore the decision to get back to the corporate world.

Dutt started out as a management trainee with the Times Group and has been in the media business thoughout his career.

The appointment of Dutt would appear to indicate that NDTV Media is readying to expand its scope of operations beyond that of managing advertising and marketing of just the NDTV news channels.

Nayak told indiantelevision.com in a recent interview that he had set himself a June deadline to start pitching for new business from non-competetive broadcasters to handle their sales and marketing as well as offer strategic programming and distribution consultancy.

Expect some action on this front once the elections are over and done with.