Mumbai: For all those who have been speculating about the future of NP Singh, one of the most spotlight-shy CEOs, at Sony in India following the impending merger with Zee Entertainment, there is no need to keep guessing. Singh's future is not only secure, but his role is actually going to be expanding, in the overall scheme of the Japanese MNC.
This is amply evident from the fact that Singh shared centre stage at Sony’s annual corporate strategy day presentation in Tokyo mid-last week, along with group chairman & CEO Yoshida Kenichiro and Sony COO & CFO Totoki Hiroki.
At the meet, Sony executives reiterated that India is one of its pivotal markets. Singh highlighted that Sony Research India is actively collaborating with Sony Pictures Releasing India to develop AI models, such as video analytics, recommendation engines and speech recognition. This aside, Singh pointed out to other successful initiatives such as Sony Talent Ventures (with Sony Music) and the Hero project initiated by Sony Interactive Entertainment that is grooming game development talent, which are being ramped up even further..
The affable and soft-spoken Sikh revealed that its streaming service SonyLiv has managed to sign on 33.3 million subscribers globally, with an annual ARPU of Rs 573, according to a report in The Mint.
Singh emphasised that "India is a global economic powerhouse and an opportunity destination for artists, content creators, game developers, studios, platforms and technology companies. Our efforts in India are aligned with Sony’s purpose of filling the world with emotion and we strive to push the boundaries and go beyond what is expected."
As far as the merger with Zee is concerned, Singh pointed out that it is still awaiting regulatory clearances. The expectation is that it should be completely green-signalled by the first half of this financial year. "Upon closing, it will enable us to expand our kind of content creation and strengthen connections with diverse communities within India," he stated.
As has been reported, Singh is slated to get bumped upstairs as the chairperson of the combined entity, while current Zee MD & CEO Punit Goenka is to be given the former's charge.
However, since the marger still has some distance to go, Singh has since reorganised SPNI with Danish Khan being handed Sony's digital initiatives and Neeraj Vyas being made responsible for the company's GEC broadcast business.
