Viacom18 appoints Gourav Rakshit to head digital arm
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Rebecca Hawkes
| 03 May 2019

Viacom18 has appointed Gourav Rakshit as chief operating officer (COO) of its Digital Ventures unit ahead of launching its VOOT Kids subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service.

Reporting to Sudhanshu Vats, Viacom18’s group CEO & MD, Rakshit will join the organisation this month from his previous role as president and CEO of People Group, parent company of dating site shaadi.com. During his 11 year tenure, he helped build a major brand with a robust consumer subscription element, and one of the best performing Indian internet companies.

With over two decades of experience in the consumer technology, IT and fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) sectors, Rakshit has also worked with Nestle, Planetasia and Infosys Consulting.

“Our digital foray has grown exponentially since its inception 3 years back, with the sharply segmented businesses – the ad led model, the international business and the soon-to-be-launched subscription based VOOT Kids service”, said Sudhanshu Vats, group CEO & MD, Viacom18.

“As we unlock business value, Gourav, with an in-depth understanding of digital disruption and a proven track-record of envisioning subscription growth, is the right person to lead our talented teams across the Digital Ventures portfolio.”

Viacom18 is planning to diversify its digital entertainment platform VOOT from its current advertising supported video-on-demand business model, adding the VOOT Kids proposition, as well as VOOT International and VOOT Freemium service.

In its first three years of operation, VOOT crossed the 100 billion watch minutes’ mark. It is now targeting 100 million monthly active users in the current financial year, up from 40 million.