Is ETV's Jagdish Chandra joining Zee Media?

Is ETV's Jagdish Chandra joining Zee Media?

Jagdish Chandra

MUMBAI: ETV News Network' Jagdish Chandra has called it a day as the company's CEO and has already served his notice period.

Chandra, a source said, plans to join Zee Media Corporation and is already negotiating with Essel Group chairman Subhash Chandra. He was not available for comment.

It is interesting to note that Zee Business, an arm of Zee Media, does not have a head as of yet.  

Chandra was a senior administrator in Rajasthan before he took voluntary retirement in 2008 to join ETV Madhya Pradesh and ETV Rajasthan, and also head the editorial section.

Recently, ETV hired Samsung’s Rajiv Mishra as the business head for the group to manage satellite TV channels namely -- News18 Tamil Nadu, News18  Kerala,  News18  Assam and North East,  ETV Rajasthan, ETV Uttar Pradesh and Uttrakhand, ETV Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, ETV Bihar and Jharkhand, ETV Urdu, ETV Haryana and Himachal Pradesh, ETV News Gujarati, ETV News Bangla, ETV News Kannada and ETV News Odia.

TV18 Broadcast, a subsidiary of Network 18, acquired the Ramoji Rao-promoted ETV network in January 2014 for Rs 2,053 crore. The deal resulted in it acquiring 100 per cent of regional Hindi news channels ETV Uttar Pradesh, ETV Madhya  Pradesh,  ETV Rajasthan, ETV Bihar and ETV Urdu and 50 per cent in ETV Marathi, ETV Kannada, ETV Bangla, ETV Gujarati and ETV Odia.

Telugu news and GEC channels ETV Telugu and ETV Telugu News will, however, see TV18 owning only 24.50 per cent equity.