Viacom18 appoints Anil Jayaraj as CEO, Sports

Viacom18 has announced the appointment of Anil Jayaraj as CEO, Sports. He will lead the media and entertainment network’s foray into acquisition, broadcasting and monetisation of sports properties.

Jayaraj joins Viacom18 from Star Sports, where he was Executive Vice-President responsible for ad sales, global syndication and cross screen offer design and measurement. He has successfully led his team to deliver business performance across multiple sporting events, including Indian Premier League, Cricket World Cup, Pro Kabaddi League, Indian Super League among others. He has a track record of successfully leading teams to deliver business results in B2C as well as B2B customer businesses, and has excelled at strategic and leadership roles.

Adil Zainulbhai, Chairman, Network18, said, “As a leading media and entertainment network in India, Viacom18 has been dialling up its offerings to tap into whitespaces across platforms. We believe 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.”  

Jayaraj has previously served as Chief Marketing Officer at Pidilite Industries Limited, prior to which he was at BP/Castrol for 16 years in sales and marketing roles based in the UK and India.

Jayaraj said, “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.” 

Jayaraj has been a passionate follower of sports since his childhood. He works as a mentor with various start-ups during his free time, and conducts sessions/guest lectures on business and marketing at various B-Schools.

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