Veteran Star India Chairman and CEO Uday Shankar has been elevated to President, 21st Century Fox, Asia. The exec has been at the helm of Fox’s Star India since 2007, guiding its transformation into a diversified media company in a rapidly growing market. In his new role, Shankar will lead 21CF’s video businesses across all of Asia, including Star India and Fox Networks Group, and work closely with leadership on key strategic initiatives in the region.
Shankar will continue to serve as Chairman and CEO for Star India, a major growth driver for 21CF with over 60 entertainment and sports channels in eight languages. It’s the market leader in key geographies, demographics and time slots, and reaches more than 700M viewers in India and across the globe every week. Shankar will also lead digital video platform Hotstar.
In addition to his leadership of Star, Shankar is an important voice of the media and broadcasting industry in the country, shaping reforms for the industry and its consumers. As the former President of the Indian Broadcasting Federation (IBF) and the current Chairman of the FICCI Media & Entertainment Committee, he has been at the forefront of landmark changes in self-regulation and pushing access for consumers to digitized distribution.
21CF bosses Lachlan and James Murdoch said, “Uday’s new role will enhance our strategic focus across all of Asia and enable us to further capture opportunities, building on the transformation Star India has driven in our most important growth market. Under Uday’s leadership, our India business has firmly established itself as a world-class asset with durable businesses across entertainment, sports, satellite distribution and OTT. His strategic vision has put 21CF at the forefront of content and distribution in one of the world’s fastest growing economies, and we are very fortunate to benefit from Uday’s expanded leadership at a global level.”
Zubin Gandevia, President of Fox Networks Group Asia, will continue to oversee video brands across 14 markets and now report to Shankar. 21CF’s film business in Asia will continue to report directly to 20th Century Fox Chairman and CEO, Stacey Snider. (Deadline broke the news yesterday that the studio was shuttering its Fox International Productions division which has been active in India. Fox Star, however, will continue to operate there.)
