MUMBAI, INDIA — August 4, 2014 – Endemol India has announced the appointment of Ashok Vidyasagar as Senior Vice President. Ashok is joining the Endemol India team to lead operations of the entire South India Business including shows like Bigg Boss. He will be responsible for focusing on scripted business opportunities in addition to exploiting the non-scripted catalog of Endemol in the 4 southern languages of Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam. Based out of Chennai, Ashok will report into Abhishek Rege, Chief Operating Officer – Television, Endemol India.
Having more than 24 years’ experience in Brand Management, Ashok has through his career steered several Global and local Brands. He has extensive marketing and communications experience in FMCG, technology, industrial manufacturing with a balanced mix of strategic account planning and operations management. Ashok has also worked for 4.5 years in Media and Entertainment Industry & Television Programming.
Ashok is a veteran in the industry with leadership and management experience in running P&L for large advertising Networks. Prior to joining Endemol India; he was instrumental in setting up Big Synergy Media Ltd, South Operations as Business Director – South. Ashok has previously also headed Enfatico (Dell’s Global Communications Company), as Country Lead for three years. Ashok has also served as Senior Vice –President and General Manager Bates and Group Business Director and General Manager Mudra Communications.
Ashok has a Commerce background with a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Administration with additional studies completed under the Executive Education from IIM, Bangalore on Integrated Marketing Communications.
“Regional markets, especially the southern markets, are fast-growing verticals for Endemol India. We have always been focused on building regional franchises of our global shows especially in the south. In the past too we have seen great success with Deal or No Deal in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam and now most recently Bigg Boss Kanada has been a huge hit. With Ashok leading the southern market, we hope to further expand and build more such ventures. We welcome him to the Endemol India team and look forward to benefiting from his talent and experience.” Said Abhishek Rege, Chief Operating Officer – Television Endemol India, about the new appointment.
“I am excited about my new role at Endemol India. Endemol India, is one of India’s largest TV Content companies with presence in television, film and digital content, and has in a short time, taken great strides in the South market most recently with the success of Bigg Boss in Kannada. I look forward to building their business down south and establishing new ventures while growing and driving forward existing business. Branded Content and Branded Engagement in TV is huge business and other new Media like Digital, Youtube, Cinema and Mobile make interesting avenues for expanding the scope of Content Strategy and business. I would like to leverage my brand experience and work on Content strategies for brands and Channels in the South of India which is an exciting set of 4 markets. With the increasing percentage of Ad spends of National brands in South, the possibilities are huge for Branded engagement and Content .Value and Volume of new content in South India have shown impressive growth year on year. Hence, brands and channels are ready to make high investments for Content resulting better ROI for them and therein lies the business Opportunity for Content.” said Ashok Vidyasagar.
About Endemol India
Endemol India is one of the leading and most valuable content production companies in India across television, film and digital content. The company is a 51:49 strategic alliance between Endemol BV- the world’s largest independent television production company and CA Media – the Asian investment arm of The Chernin Group (TCG). The company has over the years produced successful television shows like Bigg Boss, Fear Factor, Laughter Challenge, Jo Jeeta Wohi Super Star, over 400 episodes of Deal or No Deal and the recently launched The Money Drop for Sun Network amongst others. Endemol India has also forayed into the movie making business with the remake of blockbuster Kahaani in Tamil & Telugu.