Rajat Sharma’s India TV has floated a new media firm – India TV Interactive Pvt. Ltd. (ITVI). ITVI will be the vehicle for India TV to
foray into various new media platforms and value-added services. Simultaneously, India TV has also appointed Arvind Mahendru as Senior VP (New Media). Mahendru who was earlier a Managing Partner with GroupM will report to Managing Director Ritu Dhawan here. He will be responsible for growing the group’s business on the internet, mobile, and interactive television platforms. He was earlier working with Bharti Airtel Limited (2005-07) as GM, Marketing where he headed content acquisition for broadcast TV, games and international film based content for VOD services for the IPTV, broadband, mobile and DTH platforms.

Prior to Bharti, he worked as Chief Manager, Broadband, Times Internet Limited (India Times) where he was responsible for distribution, content planning and acquisition. He was in charge of the first ever IPTV Product pilot in India understanding consumer insights, product and consumer value propositions, and looked after the “8888” short code service.

India TV’s launch of ITVI is a part of the trend wherein media houses are diversifying and launching their content on new platforms
including mobile, internet and IPTV so as to leverage the new set of users there and get maximum revenue out of their existing and new media content. Film production houses are even tying up with mobile content aggregators and games websites and mobile carriers for film related content distribution.

Rajeev Shukla’s Bag Films is another media company that has ventured into the digital media domain, while established players like
Network18 and NDTV have a significant presence in this domain.

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