| Uday
Shankar
 While
most media observers and trade writers in India tend to think that Star India
CEO Uday Shankar missed the mark in 2009 because of the toppling of Star Plus
from its leadership perch, the word overseas and in corporate circles is that
he did an excellent job and continues to do so; that the Murdochs are pleased
as punch with him. During
the year, the former journalist continued the network's spread into regional language
markets and even managed to get leadership status in one of them. He kept a sharp
eye on profitability in difficult economic times, returning pleasing figures for
the network. Viewed
from a different perspective he staved off an aggressive attempt from No 3 Zee
TV to usurp his GEC flagship channel Star Plus from its No 2 spot, even though
he conceded the leadership position to rival Colors. He gambled with risqué
programming during the year, something which got him a rap on the knuckles from
the government, but also got reams of media coverage and some praise for pushing
the envelope with shows like Aap Ki Kacheri. And
as the year ended, he was gearing up to do battle and regain Star Plus' numero
uno status: he had restructured the Hindi GEC, bringing in whiz kid Gaurav Banerjee
to look after the channel. Star Plus GM Keertan Adhyanthya was moved out to head
Star Movies and Star World. He had also put wunderkinder Sameer Rao in charge
of Star Utsav and Star Gold. With
Rupert Murdoch's News Corp restructuring its broadcast business in Asia, Uday
Shankar got his pat on the back when he was delegated with many more tasks during
2009. He was handed over the responsibilities of managing the sales and distribution
offices of Star in West Asia, Britain and the US, besides growing the Indian market
and being under the direct mentoring of James Murdoch, the group's head of Asian
and European operations. Uday
also gets to look at the movie business with Fox Star Studios India CEO Vijay
Singh. The grandiose plans are to distribute 18 movies a year and be involved
in production. Avatar has become the biggest Hollywood hit in India, grossing
over Rs 1 billion.The biggest catch in the distribution net is Shah Rukh Khan's
My Name is Khan, set for release in February. His
big win for 2009 was the runaway success of Star Jalsha in just its first year
of existence as a Bengali general entertainment channel. It created waves in east
India with its programming which gelled with audiences. Then he drove his team
to come up with new programming at Vijay TV and Star Pravah - initiatives which
are bound to start bearing fruit over the next few months. If
there was one area which looked a little worrisome for Uday Shankar during 2009
it was the loss of the leadership position of Star Plus, its flagship channel
in the Hindi entertainment space. Star Plus conceded it near nine-year monopoly
to newbie Colors mid way through 2009. But that did not deter him as he continued
to focus on re-jigging the programming and on the bottomline. The network also
courted controversy thanks to its dare bare all on TV show Sach Ka Samna adapted
from The Moment of Truth. Meanwhile,
keeping pace with rival MTV, Shankar also saw Channel [V] re-furbish its content
with a host of new shows under his leadership as the channel shifted gears to
60 per cent music and 40 per cent reality show content. He
has his work cut out for him in 2010, but knowing Shankar he well might deliver.
Yet once again. Sameer
Manchanda
 He
could well be labeled the cable cowboy of India. He has aspirations - like his
esteemed US counterpart John Malone who agglomerated cable systems all over the
US into one national network - to transform the fragmented Indian cable industry
and create a giant Indian cable TV network. And
to that end he took his company DEN Networks public this year raising Rs 3.64
billion through an initial public offering. The market cap of DEN today is Rs
24.72 billion. It
looked tough seeing it through, but he finally cobbled together investors who
helped in the oversubscription of the issue. The
man being referred to is Sameer Manchanda, chairman and promoter of DEN Networks
Ltd and the joint managing director of IBN18 Broadcast Limited. Manchanda
is a feisty fighter. He spent many years with NDTV when he broke away to set up
IBN18 Broadcast, along with Rajdeep Sardesai and Raghav Bahl in 2005. Channels
such as CNN-IBN, IBN7, and IBN Lokmat, followed. All three channels have become
a news force to reckon with and Manchanda was appointed as the president of the
News Broadcasters' Association. A
fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, he has always been
credited with stitching lucrative deals for the company. He founded DEN in 2007
and he was quick to seize the opportunity in cable TV. He prepared the base for
expansion by getting distrib veterans Anuj Gandhi and SN Sharma on board and then
went about building the network in the North.
He first expended DEN in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, the two lucrative carriage revenue
markets for cable networks from broadcasters. DEN also gobbled up Amogh Broadband
Services, a leading MSO promoted by former Karnataka chief minister D Kumaraswamy's
family. It is also a major force in Haryana and Rajasthan. In
2009 DEN paced up in Gujarat and made a breakthrough in Mumbai by entering into
a joint venture with Ravi Singh's cable network in Ghatkopar, a suburb in central
Mumbai. Manchanda
can be credited with the success of DEN's IPO in 2009, but the challenges are
lying ahead. The biggest of them all: to spread digitisation across the network,
launch broadband services, and make market corrections.
Punit
Goenka
 "I
would not like to be in his shoes as expectations of him are very high because
he is my son, but he has shaped up well," these are the words Subhash Chandra
spoke about Punit Goenka recently. The son has now come of age and all indications
are that he is likely to take over the reins of the entertainment conglomerate
his father, the chairman of Zee TV, built. According
to insiders, Punit's management initiatives and style have impressed Chandra greatly
and he is looking at hanging up his corporate boots in a couple of years and focus
on his social responsibilities. Punit
was hoicked into the MD's role at Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel), giving
him total operational responsibility for the Zee Network which includes a Top
3 Hindi GEC, Zee TV, and a clutch of popular channels including Zee Cinema. And
he did leave his stamp. First, he yanked the six regional general entertainment
channels (R-GECs) from ZNL into the Zeel fold. Then he merged the ETC Networks
channels (ETC Music and ETC Punjabi) into the company he heads. He hived off the
education business, and started playing an active role in the news business by
becoming a non-executive director of Zee News Ltd. The
year also saw him buying out Ten Sports from Taj Television after some hard nosed
negotiation, even as his father's loss making T-20 format - the Indian Cricket
League - ran out of steam following a backlash from the Indian cricket board and
IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi. His
major successful play was on the Hindi GEC front. Zee TV was under attack from
a hungry for leadership Colors and an extremely defensive leader Star Plus. Goenka
took a decision not to splurge to buy GRPs. While the other two forked out top
dollar on big movies and big ticket celebrity driven reality and formatted shows,
he along with his team of Nitin Vaidya (COO -national channels and Zee TV business
head) and programming head (Ajay Balwankar, now in Sony Entertainment television),
focused on traditional soaps and low cost formats. Pavitra Rishta, Agle
Janam Mohe Bitiya Hi Kijo, Chhotti Bahu, Dance India Dance (an
adaptation of Bangla dance reality show Dance bangle Dance) were his ripostes
which helped the channel generate GRPs. So much so that it took up the No 1 spot
in week 34 with 281 GRPs. Zee TV began the year with 190 GRPs. Though
No 2 or No 3 today in terms of GRPs, the channel today is No 1 in terms of monetizable
GRPs, a statement with which even the top bosses at Star Plus and Colors will
concur. His
staff acknowledges the fact that Punit is very easily accessible and always encourages
new ideas. With that kind of zeal, it is no wonder that his father thinks Zeel
is in good hands. | 
