MUMBAI: Integrated film studio, Eros International plc, has appointed Ricky Ghai as chief executive officer of Eros Digital.
Ghai will take up his position from July. He will be based in Eros‘ operating offices primarily in India, as well as the UAE, UK and US.
Ghai moves in from the Abu Dhabi Media Company (ADM), where he led the Digital Group since its inception in 2007. He initiated a wave of strategic international investments at ADM, establishing independent, vertical subsidiaries in gaming and digital marketing.
In partnership with Sony and Universal Music Groups, Ghai also oversaw ADM‘s founding stake in online music video portal VEVO, where he was also a board member.
Complementing ADM‘s substantial online print and broadcasting properties, Ghai also helmed the launch of a live online English Premier League subscription service across the MENA region for ADM last year.
Before ADM, Ghai spent over 25 years in a variety of media roles starting with 10 years at the BBC in content acquisition and business development roles. This was followed by senior programming positions at TV3 Sweden, MBC Group and Orbit (now OSN). More recently, Ghai worked with BT Vision launching their video on demand ("VOD") service in the UK.
Currently, Eros is implementing the full digitisation of its film library, which will assist the company in monetising its intellectual property.
Eros executive chairman Kishore Lulla said, "Eros Digital will be an increasingly large contributor to Eros International Plc‘s growth over the medium term and the appointment of Ricky is a statement of our intent in this arena. We are already involved in cutting edge developments in the digital sphere, including the full digitisation of our extensive movie library. I am confident that Ricky will add greatly to our existing digital momentum."
Digitisation enables the production and delivery of content across web, mobile and other new media platforms. It also enables Eros to easily access the entire Indian diaspora across the world, as well as domestically in India.
