Tarun Katial has stepped down as the ZEE5 CEO, the VoD streaming platform owned by Zee Entertainment Enterprises. Sources close to the streaming service confirmed the development. ZEE digital businesses and platforms president Amit Goenka will lead the ZEE5 team along with other digital platforms.
“In line with our recently announced strategic restructuring of the organisation, Amit Goenka as the president, digital businesses and platforms will continue to lead team ZEE5, along with other digital platforms,” a company spokesperson stated.
This comes after ZEE had announced a strategic restructuring of the organisation and a bunch of new appointments last month. Former BCCI CEO Rahul Johri who had been appointed as South Asia business president, will be responsible for leading the integrated revenue and monetisation team, the company said. Punit Misra, meanwhile, will take over as content and international markets president.
Commenting on Katial’s departure, the person added, “We wish to confirm that Katial has tendered his resignation, as ZEE5 India CEO. We thank him for his valuable contribution towards the growth of ZEE5. His rich experience and expertise have been invaluable in building a robust digital platform. We wish him the best in all his future endeavours.”
Katial’s expertise and experience played a key role in building the digital platform. He joined ZEE5 as the CEO in November 2016, after being offered with additional responsibilities at ZEEL including television and digital content production while serving as chief executive officer of Reliance Broadcast Network Limited (RBNL).
In a span of 23 year long career, Katial has worked with advertising agencies like Saatchi & Saatchi, Enterprise Nexus and Ogilvy & Mather, as well as with TV network companies like Star Network and Sony Entertainment Television as head of channels and executive vice president respectively. He also served as 92.7 BIG FM founder chief executive officer.
Katial’s immediate future plan isn’t known yet, but he might move on to launch something of his own, industry sources expect.