Raj Nayak joins Colors as CEO

Viacom18 has appointed Aidem Ventures founder Raj Nayak as the CEO of its general entertainment channel, Colors.

Nayak replaces Rajesh Kamat, who was responsible for the channel’s success.

Kamat quit Viacom18 as chief operating officer (COO) to join the Chernin Group's CA Media as India CEO. Nayak will join later this month and report to Haresh Chawla, Group CEO, Viacom18.

“Given Raj’s extensive experience and a proven track record, we’re confident of him charting out and leading Colors in the GEC space,” said Chawla.

Aidem was in the headlines recently after NDTV decided to terminate its contract and join hands with Star India for ad sales of its channels NDTV 24x7, Profit and India.

On his new assignment Nayak said, "I’ve always admired Colors for the way it changed the landscape of Indian GEC space within a short span. It’s got a team of talented people and I look forward to working with them to continue to create newer benchmarks in the industry.”

According to industry sources, it is still unclear what the road ahead for Aidem would be, although according to company sources they may look for private equity investment. Aidem has a 200-member team, which provides sales support to BAG Network, Sri Adhikari Brothers’ television network, MSN India, Live India, Sahara One, Filmy and Firangi.

After quitting NDTV Media as CEO after seven years, Nayak had formed Aidem Ventures. NDTV Media was set up in 2003 to offer advertising sales and marketing services to television channels run by NDTV Ltd and other media companies. NDTV held around 74 per cent equity and Nayak and his team held the remaining 26 per cent.

He also spent 10 years with STAR TV Group where he was the executive vice-president, sales and marketing and was responsible for strategy, packaging and marketing for all STAR Channels and revenue for the group. He was also on the board of Vijay TV and Indya.com.