BS People: Aloke Malik

Five months after R C Venkateish parted ways with ESPN Star Sports (ESS), the broadcaster found itself a new chief earlier this week. Aloke Malik, who formerly looked after the eastern India operations at Idea Cellular, took over the reins as managing director of the company.

In his new assignment, Malik will be responsible for the distribution, sales and marketing of ESPN Star’s multi-media brands, including ESPN, Star Sports, Star Cricket, espnstar.com, Mobile ESPN and Event Management Group for the South Asia region covering India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan and Maldives.

ESPN-Star is Malik’s first stint in the broadcasting industry. And with big-ticket sports properties such as the ICC World Cup lined up in the year ahead, Malik — a keen golf enthusiast — has a lot to deliver in the coming days. But for the Indian Institute of Management-Kolkata alumnus, who has juggled responsibilities in general management, marketing, sales and distribution in local as well as multinational companies such as ITC, Pepsi, Madura Garments and Reliance Retail, the feat may not be too difficult to achieve.

While Venkateish acquired the rights to broadcast ICC events for ESS, giving the broadcaster an edge in the country’s increasingly competitive media industry, Malik is looking to strengthen the foothold of ESS in the coming days. ESS has an engaging content line-up with properties — besides the ICC Cricket World Cup — that includes Roland Garros, Wimbledon, Formula-1, the US Open and London Olympics 2012 in its portfolio.