India TV gets new national ad sales head

Sudipto Chowdhuri was national head of TV9 Kannada.

India TV has roped in Sudipto Chowdhuri as senior vice-president, sales. Chowdhuri joins the channel after a one-and-a-half year stint as national head at TV9 Kannada. At India TV, he will lead the national advertising revenue of the channel.

Armed with 21 years of experience, Chowdhuri has earlier worked with STAR News as group accounts director (ad sales) for nearly three years in Mumbai.

After graduating in commerce from Calcutta University, Chowdhuri began his career in the institutional sales department of ICS, a computer education company, in Delhi in 1991. After two years, he shifted to Tata Yellow Pages, where he handled advertising sales. He was part of the launch team of the Kolkata edition of Tata Yellow Pages. He then joined India Today in Hyderabad in 1999 and later shifted to Zee Network to handle the network's sales in Andhra Pradesh for three years. He was promoted as assistant vice-president and after four years, he joined INX Media as regional manager in 2007 but left the organisation within a year.

Chowdhuri says, "I am sure it would be quite challenging and equally exciting to do business differently in a fiercely competitive genre like Hindi news. Moreover, it will be a great experience to learn and grow with some of the best people in the industry."

Paritosh Joshi, strategist, India TV, says that Chowdhuri's depth of experience will be catalytic for a strong revenue team, which will further accelerate the aggressive growth path of the company.

Chowdhuri also has a keen interest in sports and has played under-16 and under-19 football for West Bengal. He is also a state level gold medallist in featherweight category of Taekwondo.

India TV was co-founded by Rajat Sharma in 2004 with its head office in Noida. The channel is owned by parent company, Independent News Service, which too was set up by Sharma in 1997. According to the channel's website, the parent company was valued at more than Rs 500 crore in 2008.