Viacom18 has finally appointed a full-time CEO in Jyoti Deshpande after almost 17 months since the exit of former MD and CEO Sudhanshu Vats. Following Vats’ exit, Network18 and TV18 MD Rahul Joshi was running the day-to-day operations of the entertainment company.

In her new assignment, Deshpande will help bring synergies across all of Reliance’s media interests and investments and further equip the company to drive significant growth opportunities as the industry embraces digital transformation, the company said in a statement.

She joins Viacom18 from Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), where she was President — Media Platform & Content since 2018. As a business leader in Reliance, Deshpande leveraged her industry relationships to establish Jio Studios as a key player in the media value chain. She also had a critical oversight role across all of RIL’s media investments such as Network18 Group, Balaji Telefilms and JioSaavn with a view to integrate the synergies across these diverse media companies and build maximum value.

Prior to Reliance, Deshpande was with Eros International Media for almost 17 years and led the transformation of the film studio into a leading media company. She also pioneered Eros’ entry into the OTT space with Eros Now.

Deshpande brings 27+ years of experience in the media and entertainment industry across advertising, media consulting, television and film with expertise in areas like strategy development, public policy, governance, human resource and leadership skills.

Her appointment as CEO of Viacom18 comes close on the heels of Anil Jayaraj’s appointment as the CEO of the network’s sports business. In this role, Jayaraj reports to Network18 and TV18 MD Rahul Joshi, who is also a Director on the Viacom18 board.

Experts believe that Deshpande’s key role as CEO will be to strengthen and scale-up the core entertainment business across TV, digital, and film segments. The company’s big growth push will also come in the form of entry into sports broadcasting. Jayaraj, who has been hired from Star India to spearhead this business, is putting together different pieces to build a strong sports franchise.

Viacom18, a 51:49 JV between TV18 and ViacomCBS, has five lines of businesses including TV, OTT, film production, licensing and merchandising (L&M), and live events. As a network, Viacom18 is a strong number 3 player with an 11% share, as per TV18’s Q1 FY22 presentation. The network has 53 TV channels spread across Hindi mass entertainment, kids, regional, youth, and English entertainment genres.

While the company is strong in Hindi mass entertainment and kids, Deshpande’s big challenge will be to grow the regional TV business and make it a big contributor to the company’s topline and bottomline.

The company’s video streaming platform Voot has positioned itself as the second largest AVOD platform with 100 million MAUs and 43 minutes of average Time Spent per Views (TSV), as per a company presentation. The platform’s content offering spans broadcast, digital, films and live events.

Faced with competition from Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ Hotstar, ZEE5 and SonyLIV, Voot will have to significantly up its investments in original content to remain a key player in the SVOD and AVOD markets. Deshpande’s experience across TV, film and digital ecosystems will come in handy for Voot’s expansion.

Another key focus area for Deshpande will be Viacom18 Studios, an integrated motion picture studio which has delivered critically and commercially successful films like Andhadhun (2018), Padmaavat (2018), Toilet — Ek Prem Katha (2017), and Drishyam (2015) among others. Coming from Reliance, she would want to draw upon the synergies between Jio Studios and Viacom18 Studios.

As per its annual filing, Viacom18 Media had reported 65% growth in net profit at Rs 582.89 in FY21 compared to Rs 353.54 crore in FY20. The company’s revenue from operations dropped by 15.37% to Rs 3276.32 crore for the fiscal under review as against Rs 3871.65 crore. Advertisement Sales, Subscription, and Program Syndication revenue was down 10.44% at Rs 3205.47 crore compared to Rs 3579.41 crore. Film distribution and syndication revenue saw a 77% decline at Rs 63.73 crore from Rs 278.1 crore due to restrictions on functioning of theatres.

Her appointment as CEO comes at a time when the media & entertainment (M&E) is going through a transformation due to convergence between telecom, media, and technology. The broadcasting sector, in which Viacom18 is one of the key players, is also going through a consolidation phase.

Recently, ZEE Entertainment and Sony Pictures Networks India (SPNI) announced a merger deal which will create a media behemoth. This is the second biggest M&A deal after the acquisition of ETV regional entertainment channels by Network18, which came into Mukesh Ambani-promoted Reliance Industries Limited’s fold in 2014.

Digital video consumption is at an all-time high, and the penetration of broadband to far corners of the country has the potential to redraw the M&E sector’s map. Traditional broadcasting is still growing thanks to the increase in rural TV households, even as over the top (OTT) platforms have become mainstream.

In April 2018, Jyoti Deshpande had stepped down from her role of executive director from Eros International Media following her appointment as president of the Chairman’s office for media and entertainment at RIL from 1st April 2018. In the same year, she was also appointed as non-executive additional director and non-executive director of Balaji Telefilms and Network18 respectively.

Outside Network18, Reliance had acquired a 24.92% stake in Balaji for Rs 413 crore. The company had also bought a 5% stake in Eros Plc for $48.75 million. Furthermore, the two companies had also formed a joint venture (JV) to invest Rs 1000 crore on content development.

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