Star India Chairman and CEO Uday Shankar has been promoted to president of 21st Century Fox, Asia, the company announced Tuesday.
Starting immediately, Shankar will lead 21st Century Fox’s video businesses across all of Asia, including Star India and Fox Networks Group, and work closely with 21CF leadership on key strategic initiatives in the region.
He will continue to serve as chairman and CEO for Star India, a key driver of 21CF’s growth and one of India’s largest media and entertainment companies, made up of 60-plus channels across entertainment and sports and eight languages, as well as leading digital video platform Hotstar.
Zubin Gandevia, President of Fox Networks Group Asia, will continue to oversee video brands across 14 markets and now report to Shankar under this realigned regional structure. 21CF’s film business in Asia will continue to report directly to Stacey Snider, Chairman and CEO of 20th Century Fox Film.
“Uday’s new role will enhance our strategic focus across all of Asia and enable us to further capture opportunities, building on the transformation Star India has driven in our most important growth market,” 21st Century Fox Executive Chairman Lachlan Murdoch and CEO James Murdoch said in a statement. “Under Uday’s leadership, our India business has firmly established itself as a world-class asset with durable businesses across entertainment, sports, satellite distribution and OTT.”
Shankar has led Star India since October 2007 and has guided the transformation of Star into a diversified media company, leading initiatives in distribution through Media Pro, movies through Fox Studio, regional television through Asianet, and sports, following 21CF’s (then News Corp) acquisition of its joint venture with ESPN in 2012.