Google vet Sajith Sivanandan to head up Disney+ Hotstar India
Disney’s international content and operations group has appointed Sajith Sivanandan to the position of executive vice president and head of Disney+ Hotstar.
Sivanandan (pictured) joins Disney+ Hotstar from Google, and will take up his new role in October with a dual reporting line to Rebecca Campbell, chairman of Disney’s international content and operations group and K. Madhavan, president of Disney Star.
In the post, Sivanandan will oversee Disney+ Hotstar’s business operations in India and will assume responsibility for defining the service’s strategic business priorities and charting a product roadmap for Disney+ Hotstar’s growth. He will also work closely with local leadership in international markets as well as with the Disney+ team in the U.S. to drive Disney+ Hotstar’s growth as India’s leading streaming service.
Sivanandan spent more than 14 years at Google, most recently serving as managing director and business head of Google Pay and Next Billion User Initiatives for the tech giant’s APAC region. Prior to that, he led Google Pay in India. He began his career at Star TV in India in 1996, where he managed the North India market for Channel V.
“I am delighted to have Sajith join our executive team and lead the innovative team at Disney+ Hotstar,” said Rebecca Campbell, chairman of Disney’s international content and operations group in a release. “His deep experience in the region, combined with his strong leadership and business management skills will greatly benefit Disney+ Hotstar as the platform embarks on its next phase of growth.”
BBC Studios’ 1% Club bound for Germany
BBC Studios has licensed its entertainment format The 1% Club to Germany’s SevenOne Entertainment Group.
The 1% Club sees contestants answering questions using logic, reasoning and common sense. The game begins with questions that 90% of the population would get right and continues until the final question that only 1% of the country can solve. Successful contestants earn a place in the 1% Club: an elite group who can say they’re smarter than 99% of the population.
Originally created by Magnum Media for UK’s ITV, the German adaptation of the game show will be produced by BBC Studios Germany. Germany is the fifth country to license the format, following deals with France Televisions in France, Kan in Israel, RTL in the Netherlands and, most recently, Atresmedia Television in Spain.
Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment revamps senior leadership team
Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment chairman and CEO William J. Rouhana has unveiled the formation of a new senior leadership team drawn from both Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment and its recent acquisition, Redbox.
As previously announced, entertainment and streaming industry veterans Galen C. Smith, executive vice chairman, and Jonathan Katz, president, will lead the team across a number of areas to support the company’s growth. Both Smith and Katz will report to Rouhana.
As executive vice chairman of Redbox and Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, Smith will oversee all long-term planning for the company, including strategy, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate services. Reporting to him will be senior vice president corporate communications, Peter Binazeski, head of the company’s corporate communications and public relations; chief people officer Marisa Famulare, who continues to direct all people functions; chief innovation officer Jason Kwong, who shifts duties to a newly-expanded role incubating and developing future areas of growth for the combined business; chief financial officer Chris Mitchell, who continues to be responsible for all financial operations, capital structure and investor relations; chief strategy officer Elana Sofko, who continues to manage M&A activities and international expansion; and chief legal officer Fred Stein, who expands his Redbox role to oversee all legal, business affairs and risk management.
President Jonathan Katz will oversee day-to-day operations, including the company’s streaming, kiosk, distribution and studio businesses. Reporting to him will be chief operating officer and president, Redbox Service, Michael Chamberlain, who continues to oversee the operations of the Redbox kiosk business, and leads the growing kiosk service business; chief executive officer, studios, David Ellender, who continues to lead the Chicken Soup for the Soul Television Group, developing and producing original content for all owned-and-operated platforms, now including Redbox kiosks and streaming, as well as third-party productions; chief acquisitions and distribution officer, David Fannon, who continues to oversee all domestic and international content acquisition and distribution and expands his purview to include Redbox while continuing in his role as president of Screen Media Ventures; chief marketing officer Mike Feldner, who adds the combined company to his Redbox role, heading up all marketing, branding and creative services, along with leading the analytics and insights team; chief revenue officer Philippe Guelton, who expands his role to lead all advertising sales and operations, as well as revenue partnerships across the company; and chief digital officer Adam Mosam, who adds to his responsibilities oversight of the company’s streaming businesses, including product, technology and platform distribution.
Zed makes four true-crime acquisitions
French indie producer and distributor Zed has revealed a focus on true crime in its line-up, featuring four new true-crime acquisitions representing 12 hours of programming available for pre-sales.
The Jersey Way: Inside the Island’s Scandals is a four-part exploration of the history of crime on Europe’s Jersey Island, from a masked rapist in the 1960s to the political scandal of the 2000s. Directed by Dominique Baumard and Antoine Guerre and produced by TDO and Mil Sabords for Planète+, the series will be available in late August 2022.
Inside the Order of the Solar Temple examines the story of the Order of the Solar Temple cult, which claims to be based on the ideals of the Knights Templar. With exclusive access and testimonials, the 4 x 52-minute series offers a deep dive into the mass suicide cult that shook the world 25 years ago. It’s directed by Pierre Morath and Erick Lemasson and produced by Yuzu Productions, Les Productions du Moment (France) and Point Prod (Switzerland) for RTS and Planète+. It will be delivered by the end of 2022.
The documentary The Serpent: Conversation with a Criminal looks at the story behind the criminal Charles Sobhraj, who inspired the Netflix show The Serpent. This film, available as both a single 90-minute film and two 45-minute episodes, is built around a conversation with Sobhraj himself, recorded from his jail in secret for 17 years by director Jean-Charles Deniau. Produced by Adamis Production for Planète+, the film is scheduled to be delivered at the end of 2022.
Finally, Highway to Hell: The Story of a $100M Failure is a 4 x 52-minute documentary series that tells the story of a man alleged to have ran an international drug trafficking operation on behalf of Colombian cartels sending drugs to North American dealers. The series is directed by Clément Godart, Alexandre Mehring and Raphaël Rouyer and produced by Cat & Cie and Incognita Doc for Canal+ and is slated for completion in spring of 2023.
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