Uday Shankar has orchestrated several coups, like acquiring the IPL broadcast and media rights from Sony. He trumped 13 other competitors that included Facebook, Reliance Jio, and Bharti Airtel, apart from Sony.
As competitive sport gradually resumes around the world, the BCCI is considering holding the Indian Premier League (IPL) behind closed doors later this year. The possible return of live sport offers a ray of hope to lockdown-hit advertisers desperate to clamber onto the cricket bandwagon. And to BCCI’s official broadcaster Star TV, it presents the unique challenge of telecasting matches from empty stadiums.
On Tuesday evening, The Indian Express will host an online Adda with Uday Shankar, president, The Walt Disney Company (Asia Pacific) and chairman, Star & Disney India. He will be in conversation with Anant Goenka, Executive Director, The Indian Express Group, and Sandeep Dwivedi, National Sports Editor.
Shankar, who was born in Muzaffarpur, Bihar, has a Masters degree in economics from Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University. He forged a successful career as a print and broadcast journalist before taking the untrodden, slippery path of broadcast management. His journey from a newsman to the country’s powerful broadcast executive has been hugely eventful.
Known for his innovative programming and calculated aggression, Shankar led Star’s foray into the digital space with Hotstar. Sidestepping the critics, Star launched the streaming service a few years ago, and now close to 100 million sports fans tune in for a game.
Shankar has orchestrated several coups, like acquiring the IPL broadcast and media rights from Sony. He trumped 13 other competitors that included Facebook, Reliance Jio, and Bharti Airtel, apart from Sony.
The Express Adda is a series of informal interactions organised by The Indian Express Group and features those at the centre of change. Past guests at the event include Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, former UK Deputy Prime Minister and Vice-President of Global Affairs and Communications at Facebook Nick Clegg, the Dalai Lama, economist and Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, oncologist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Siddhartha Mukherjee, writer William Dalrymple, Congress leader and Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot, world badminton champion P V Sindhu, and national badminton coach Pullela Gopichand.