Harsh Rohatgi, executive vice president at NDTV Imagine, is leaving the company to join National Geographic Channel as MD, a person familiar with the development said. Rohatgi denied he was leaving Imagine. Rohatgi spent seven years at Star India and was GM and senior VP, content and communication, prior to…

In what is seen as a fallout of ratings performance, Star India has made changes to the management of flagship general entertainment channel Star Plus (via Indiantelevision). The channel’s GM Keertan Adyanthaya will now handle the company’s english channels Star Movies and Star World, while the company’s COO Sanjay Gupta,…

For the past few months, Star Plus, Zee and Colors have been playing musical chairs with the top three slots in GEC ratings, with marketshares of all three channels mostly falling in the 18-22% range. Colors has broken away for the first time this week, with a lead of 7…

Sun TV Network today named Ravinath Menon head of programming. The network operates 20 satellite channels in four southern languages. Prior to this, Menon was an executive vice-president at Star India and headed Star One channel. Star India is a unit of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp (NYSE: NWS).

Star India SVP for new media, Gurtej Sandhu recently told us the company might premier a Star One show online before it appears on TV. They have actually premiered two Star Plus shows on Star Player, the company’s online video platform. On 5 August, two new Star Plus shows—Aap Ki…

News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) subsidiary Star India last week launched Star Player—an online video destination that currently features content from the broadcaster’s multiple channels. Star Player’s design and layout is similar to Hulu and Gurtej Sandhu, SVP for new media at Star, told contentSutra that the US-focussed video site is…

News Corp.-owned Star Plus, which reigned on top of the GEC ratings chart undisputed for nearly a decade, has now slipped to the third position, not only beaten by new entrant Colors, but also by decade-old rival Zee TV, which has been playing catch up with Star Plus for several…

Balaji Telefilms Ltd, the Mumbai-based producer of television software, posted its first quarterly loss yesterday. The company swung from a net profit of Rs23.85 crore for Q408 to a net loss of Rs14.62 crore for the corresponding quarter this fiscal. Consolidated net profit dropped 99.14% from Rs95.59 crore, to Rs47…

We are introducing a weekly roundup of industry moves culled from a range of sources—some of which we have covered and some that we haven’t. The focus is on senior executive movement in the industries that we cover—media (digital and traditional) and entertainment. If you think we are missing anything,…

Yash Khanna, executive vice-president (corporate communication) at Star India, is leaving the company, becoming the fourth senior executive to quit in two months at the Rupert Murdoch-owned broadcaster. Khanna joined Star in 1992, as the second employee of the organisation in India, at a time when it was a satellite…

Nautanki.tv Networks Pvt. Ltd, the video distribution start up in which Hungama Digital Media Entertainment Pvt Ltd (formerly Virtual Marketing) acquired a majority stake last year, is rapidly scaling up in terms of content offerings. It has struck a deal with Star India Pvt. Ltd, the News Corp (NYSE: NWS).…

—Starry few days for Rupert Murdoch, the man who made Tony Blair doesn’t seem to have lost his appetitite for a heady cocktail of politics and media, even in India. Mr Murdoch is believed to have given the nod for an alliance with the Rajeev Chandrasekhar-led Asianet Entertainment. ET reports…

News Corp (NYSE: NWS). will spend $100 million to start six regional TV channels in India over the next year, WSJ reported. The channels will be part of News Corp.‘s Star brand, which broadcasts more than 60 TV services in ten languages in 53 Asian countries. Speaking at a news…

The general entertainment channel wars are hurting the mass entertainment conglomerates hard. Mint reports Star India, a News Corp (NYSE: NWS). subsidiary, is mulling divesting 25.9% of its stake in K-Serial konglomerate Balaji Telefilms. The reason is a strain on the exclusivity agreement between Star and Balaji since Balaji now…

Indiagames has acquired rights for mobile, PC and interestingly Interactive Television (DTH and IPTV) rights for Star’s Kya Aap Paanchvi Paas Se Tez Hain (Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader?). The tri-party deal with Bulldog Media, Star TV and Indiagames gives Indiagames the right to publish ancillary content including…

Cleartrip has tied up with Star India’s mobile application PLUS, to deliver travel related information to users. The service allows users to access travel information and make reservations via the client’s interface. The release has Sandeep Murthy, CEO, Cleartrip, stating their tie-up with PLUS will give them access to 200…

For some reason, at the NDTV New Media Congress, the session focusing on mass media companies taking to the Internet digressed down the New Media vs Old Media path. Kevin Obi, SVP (Digital Assets) for NBCU International seemed rather annoyed at the “ridiculous” distinction between new media and old media,…

Mohit Anand, formerly the Country Manager For Microsofts Entertainment & Devices Division will be joining Channel [V] as General Manager for Channel [V], from the 21st of April, reports Indiantelevision.com. It’ll be interesting to see if Anands time in the gaming business (he was with MS for eights years), and…

This appears to be a day for entertainment websites - and I wonder if we’re headed for a glut of some sort: It appears that STAR TV has launched an entertainment portal called Starboxoffice.com. On the face of it, the site appears to be fairly similar to BollywoodHungama.com, which also…