Uday Shankar to step down as Chairman, Star & Disney India
By MYBRANDBOOK
The Walt Disney Company has announced that Uday Shankar, chief executive of Star India will step down from his position by the end of 2020.
Apart from being the Chairman of Star & Disney India, he was also responsible for Asia Pacific region of the Walt Disney Company in 2019, after Disney acquired 21st Century Fox from Rupert Murdoch.
In his stint at Star, his hallmark was making aggressive bets and boldly try out new concepts and ideas that often came to define a market.
Be it his Rs 16,347.5 crore all or nothing bid for the global media rights of the Indian Premier League (IPL), Rs 6,138.1 crore bid for the BCCI rights, or Rs 2,400 crore buyout deal for Maa TV Network, Shankar took bets, which very few in the industry could.
Rebecca Campbell, Chairman of Disney’s Direct-to-Consumer & International segment issued a statement on Shankar’s decision to move on.
As per Shankar, he always believed in the power of creativity and cutting-edge technology to create a better world. He considered himself incredibly fortunate to have had the opportunity to do so at Star, 21CF and later at The Walt Disney Company.
“As I look back on this journey, I take pride in having set ambitious goals in my professional career, and achieving all that we set out to do,” he said.
Shankar said that for some time now he had been contemplating the question of how he can give back to the country, community and the industry that had given him so much.
“I think the best way to express my gratitude to all of them will be to support and mentor a new generation of entrepreneurs as they set out to create transformational solutions that will have a positive impact on countless lives. I intend to partner with global investors and pioneers to achieve this,” Shankar said.
If rumours are to be believed then Shankar might join former employer James Murdoch, who has set up family office Lupa Systems, or may start his own fund backed by Murdoch and other sovereign funds.
In his decades plus stint at Star, Shankar changed the orbit for India’s biggest broadcaster.
When Shankar was named CEO of Star India 2007, it seemed like a temporary arrangement after the top talent had left the network along with the two co-CEOs – Peter Mukerjea and Sameer Nair, who both quit to launch their own channels.
He played a pivotal role in launching multiple domestic sports leagues like those in Kabaddi and Football.
Under his leadership, Star launched its OTT platform Hotstar.
Prior to Star, he was CEO and editor of Star News, the then joint venture between Star India and ABP Group.
Shankar was also the Editor and news director at TV Today Group, where he spearheaded the launch of Aaj Tak in 2000 and Headlines Today (Now India Today TV) in 2003.
BHIM to join e-commerce, competing with PhonePe and Google Pay
The government-supported payment software BHIM is getting ready to join t...
The latest version of X helps prevent deepfakes on social medi
To combat deepfakes and shallowfakes, Elon Musk revealed a new update t...
India and Namibia collaborate on a payment system similar to U
Once operational, the platform will enable digital transactions in Namibia,...
Sebi issues show-cause notices to six Adani group firms
Sebi issued show-cause notices to six Adani Group firms, including Adani ...
AMARA RAJA POWER SYSTEMS LTD.
STERLITE TECHNOLOGIES LTD.
SECUREYE SERVICES PVT. LTD.
VVDN TECHNOLOGIES
Technology Icons Of India 2023: Honorary Prof. N. Balakrishnan
Prof. N. Balakrishnan is an Indian aerospace and computer scientist. H...
Technology Icons Of India 2023: Debjani Ghosh
Debjani Ghosh is the first woman president of NASSCOM (the umbrella bo...
Technology Icons Of India 2023: Rajeev Chandrasekhar
Rajeev Chandrasekhar is the Union Minister of State for Electronics an...
NIC bridging the digital divide and supporting government in eGovernance
The National Informatics Centre (NIC) is an Indian government departme...
BSE provides highly secure, efficient and transparent market for trading
BSE (formerly known as Bombay Stock Exchange Ltd.) is Asia's first & t...
TCIL continues to strengthen India with its technology expertise
TCIL undertakes consultancy & turnkey projects in the field of Telecom...
ADITYA INFOTECH LTD.
Aditya Infotech Ltd. (AIL) – the technology arm of Aditya Group, is ...
IVALUE INFOSOLUTIONS PVT. LTD.
: iValue Info Solutions is a value added distributor, provides solutio...
WPG C&C COMPUTERS & PERIPHERALS PVT. LTD.
WPG C&C Computers & Peripherals (India) was incorporated in 2008 and ...