MUMBAI: Sahara India Media & Entertainment (SIME) seems to be making a serious attempt at pulling up its socks and make a fight of a seemingly losing news battle.
With a view to beef up the channel management of its news channels --- five at the moment, including the national news channel --- Sahara has roped in a media veteran in DK Pandey as senior vice-president.
Pandey, whose appointment comes into effect from 28 January, will be overseeing the overall management of the existing and future news channels, apart from being the head of all Sahara media properties' bureaux.
He has also been named to undertake the areas of content pertaining to broadcast as well as the print medium.
Pandey will be reporting to SIME senior vice president and former print medium journalist Ambikanand Sahay.
Contacted by indiantelevision.com today, Sahay, who has had a long stint at The Times of India in various senior positions, says, "Mr Pandey is a seasoned professional who has the right sort of experience to undertake the mandate given to him."
Sahay pointed out that all the bureaux of Sahara properties --- both TV and print --- have now been merged to bring in a synergy. This also means that all channel and bureau heads will be reporting to Pandey.
Pandey is an alumina of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur and Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. His association with media companies includes heavyweights like Times of India, Zee Telefilms (where he headed MSO Siti Cable at one time) and Reliance Infocomm. At Reliance, Pandey spent spent several years and is considered to have been part of the core team that set up Reliance Infocomm.
The appointment of Pandey is significant as it points to the renewed efforts being put in to beef up content and other aspects of marketing and distribution. Recently, as reported by indiantelevision.com, SIME got itself a senior distribution professional, Tapas Roy, from Siti Cable.
Roy had been recruited to look after the north and eastern markets, but after the departure of Mohan Raj, who looked after the western and southern markets, Roy has been named the national distribution head for all Sahara channels, including the entertainment one.
