The Indian arm of Turner Broadcasting System, Turner International India, has appointed Rohit Bhandari as network head and senior director reports, Mediavtaar.com. Bhandari will head the company’s English entertainment portfolio which also includes HBO South Asia, WB Channel and TCM India.
Bhandari will be responsible for the growth strategy, planning and execution of all network functions which includes content acquisition, communications, marketing and brand building. He will also report to Siddharth Jain, Turner’s Senior Vice President and Managing Director for South Asia and be based out of Mumbai.
According to Bhandari’s LinkedIn profile, he previously worked as head of media and entertainment of Sahara India. Prior to that he worked at AXN and Animax India for four years and as various roles at Sony Pictures Entertainment and Sony Entertainment Television.
Turner Broadcasting in India
Turner International India operates kids entertainment channels Cartoon Network, POGO, Tonami India and English entertainment channels HBO and WB Channel. In 2012, Turner shut down general entertainment channel Imagine TV as the channel failed to grow and perform as per expectations, and was unable to achieve the ratings consistency needed to sustain the business and support continued investment. Turner had acquired a 92% stake in Imagine for a sum of $126.5 million from NDTV, which had initially started the channel.
Turner Broadcasting System had a restructuring in 2011 and had appointed Monica Tata as Turner International India’s VP & GM Networks. Later in 2012, Tata quit the company and went on to join HBO India as Managing Director.
