MUMBAI: Sony Pictures India MD & CEO NP Singh has handed over the baton of president of the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) to Star and Disney India MD & president K Madhavan during its most challenging phase. The broadcasting industry – like many other industries – is going through one of its most difficult phases thanks to the Covid2019 associated lockdown  with revenues plummeting for almost every player. Profitability has shrivelled for most and salary cuts and layoffs have been resorted to right size companies.

Additionally, broadcasters have been fighting to stave off what they call the ‘draconian’ NTO 2.0 regulation which has been imposed on them by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)

The industry has been fighting the implementation of that regime for some months in India’s courts.  The TRAI had imposed NTO 1.0 hardly a year before promulgating its second version.

Singh completed two years in the office of IBF president which is the maximum duration a head can hold office.

Previous leaders  of the IBF include: Zee TV’s Punit Goenka, Sony Pictures Man Jit Singh, Jawahar Goel, Star India’s Uday Shankar, Prasar Bharti’s KS Sarma, Rajiv Ratna Shah, and  Anil Baijal, .

Madhavan is probably best suited to drive the IBF during this phase. A banker, he was instrumental behind making Asianet, an ailing channel,  a huge success, which was later acquired by Star India. Madhvan then went on to build Star India’s southern bouquet, making it a major revenue contributor to the Star India group.

He was appointed as MD of Star and Disney India when COO Sanjay Gupta departed for Google, leaving a void in the company. The then  CEO Uday Shankar was elevated to president Walt Disney Co APAC and chairman of Star India and Disney India.

Since taking over Madhavan has taken the group’s leading GEC Star Plus to the top of BARC’s viewing  sweepstakes.