NEWS ANALYSIS: THE REASON FOR UDAY Shankar’s decision to step down as president, The Walt Disney Company APAC and chairman, Star & Disney India, announced last Thursday, is clear now. Not quite so clear is why Star Sports CEO Gautam Thakar AND three other top executives acted in consort to take the exit route from India’s leading sports network.
As SportzPower had noted in its report filed Monday, while Thakar’s departure had been in the works for some months now, what was surprising was that the confirmation of his leaving came bang in the middle of the ongoing Indian Premier League.
What made the development even more intriguing was that that alongside Thakar, three other top executives – Ashok Namboodiri, executive vice president and Business head – Regional Sports Networks, Rajiv Mathrani, EVP & head Marketing, Star Sports, and Rupali Fernandes, EVP – Emerging Sports, Advertising Sales, Product and Revenue Strategy, also tendered their resignations.
Be that as it may, it is worth noting now that pretty much the whole leadership team that drove the sports business at Star India has departed, with the BIG ones of course being Shankar now and Star & Disney India country head Sanjay Gupta having left and joined Google in January.
As for the new team that will take up the baton as far as driving the Star Sports business is concerned, the amazing numbers that the Indian Premier League is delivering for the network is about the only certainty on offer going forward.
In regards to the other two tentpole cricket properties in the Star kitty – ICC cricket and BCCI cricket – in a post-COVID world, that extracting profits from these rights as and when they are held will be challenging is a given.
And what of Shankar’s resignation? Monday’s announcement by The Walt Disney Company of a strategic reorganization of its media and entertainment businesses aimed at “accelerating” its direct-to-consumer (DTC) strategy, provides the clues, SportzPower believes.
Extracting directly from the corporate announcement: “Rebecca Campbell will serve as chairman, International Operations and Direct-to-Consumer.”
Another extract: “With the reorganization, the Direct-to-Consumer and International business will no longer be managed on a combined basis. In Campbell’s role leading international operations, she will be responsible for coordinating and integrating activities across the various business units in each market to best represent the company’s overall interests, and will report to (Bob) Chapek (CEO, The Walt Disney Company). In her role leading direct-to-consumer operations for Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+, she will report to (Kareem) Daniel (head, The Media and Entertainment Distribution Group).”
Coming to Shankar’s resignation, again extracting directly from the earlier corporate announcement of his departure: “Uday Shankar will step down as president, The Walt Disney Company APAC and chairman, Star & Disney India, effective as of December 31, Rebecca Campbell, chairman of Disney’s Direct-to-Consumer & International segment, announced Thursday.
“Over the next three months, Shankar will work closely with Ms Campbell to identify his successor to ensure a smooth transition.”
Putting on Shankar’s hat, here’s how SportzPower views these developments. Here is someone who has pretty mush achieved all that there is to achieve in the Indian (and APAC) media and entertainment arena. Someone who had a direct line of communication to both Rupert Murdoch and his sons Lachlan and James when Star India was a 21st Century Fox subsidiary.
In the new Disney order, Shankar reports to Ms Campbell, who reports to both Chapek and Daniel, who both report in to executive chairman Bob Iger.
To paraphrase US President Barack from his final White House correspondents’ dinner speech back in April 2016: “Shankar Out.”
As for the Star India leadership stakes, again taking cues from Disney’s corporate restructuring announcement, and keeping aside Campbell’s search for Shankar’s replacement, SportzPower believes that the three executives who will be key cogs in the strategic roadmap that The House of Mouse is laying out for India are K Madhavan, managing director, Star & Disney India, Prateek Garg, head of Corporate Development – Direct-to-Consumer & International, APAC, The Walt Disney Company, and Sunil Rayan, president and head, Disney+ Hotstar India.
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