Viacom18 has been dialling up its offerings to tap into whitespaces across platforms.

Viacom18 has appointed Anil Jayaraj as CEO – Sports on Thursday. In his new role, Jayaraj will be leading the media and entertainment network’s foray into acquisition, broadcasting and monetisation of sports properties. Viacom18 has been dialling up its offerings to tap into whitespaces across platforms, Adil Zainulbhai, chairman, Network18, said. “We believe that sports is an important category in our promise to deliver wholesome entertainment to our over 800 million viewers across demographics and geographies. With his rich experience in identifying and building sporting events into high value sportainment phenomena, Anil Jayaraj is aptly poised to lead our newest sports vertical,” Zainulbhai added.

Anil Jayaraj joins Viacom18 from Star Sports, where he was executive vice president responsible for ad sales, global syndication and cross-screen offer design and measurement. He has led his team to deliver business performance across multiple sporting events including Indian Premier League (IPL), Cricket World Cup, Pro Kabaddi League, Indian Super League, among others. Prior to Star Sports, Anil Jayaraj was with Pidilite Industries Limited and served as chief marketing officer. He has also worked with BP/Castrol for 16 years in sales and marketing roles based in the UK and India.

For Anil Jayaraj, sporting events in India have evolved beyond just one or two games with increasing fandom amongst audiences towards newer competitive sports. “This democratisation has created an unmatched opportunity for sportainment and I am looking forward to building Viacom18 network’s foray into sports as a category,” he stated.

Viacom18 Media Pvt Ltd is a house of brands that offers multi-platform, multi-generational and multicultural brand experiences. A joint venture of TV18, which owns 51%, and ViacomCBS, with a 49% stake, Viacom18 defines entertainment in India by touching the lives of people through its properties on-air, online, on-ground, in-shop and through cinema.

Read Also: YouTube Brandcast 2021: 93% of YouTube viewers prefer watching content in Indian languages

Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook