Viacom18, an Indian joint venture operation between TV18 and ViacomCBS based in Mumbai, has announced the signing of Anil Jayaraj as the CEO-Sports.
After the appointment, Jayaraj will look after the Media & Entertainment network beside the sports properties of the organisation for broadcasting and monetization rights.
Commenting on the development, Adil Zainulbhai, Chairman, Network18 said: “As a leading media & entertainment network in India, Viacom18 has been dialling up its offerings to tap into whitespaces across platforms. We believe that sports is an important category in our promise to deliver wholesome entertainment to our 800mn+ viewers across demographics and geographies.”
“With his rich experience in identifying and building sporting events into high value sportainment phenomena, Anil is aptly poised to lead our newest sports vertical,” he added.
On the other hand, Jayaraj expressed: “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 excited to build Viacom18 network’s foray into sports as a category.”
Earlier, Jayaraj, has experience in both B2C (business to consumer) and B2B (business to business) strategies, was associated with Star Sports as its Executive Vice President and managed advertisement revenue and sales.
He was in charge of tournaments like the Indian Premier League (IPL), ICC Cricket World Cup, Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) and Indian Super League (ISL).
In the past, Jayaraj has worked as Chief Marketing Officer at Pidilite Industries Limited and was also associated with BP/Castrol in sales and marketing roles in the UK and India for 16 years.