Raj Nayak is new CEO of Colors

Raj Nayak, a media veteran and founder and MD of Aidem Ventures, has been roped in as the CEO of Colors, the Hindi general entertainment channel from the Viacom 18 stable. Nayak will replace Rajesh Kamat, who has recently quit to join Peter Chernin Group's CA Media as its India CEO.

In his new role, Nayak will be responsible for driving the brand and the business towards profitability and growth. He will be reporting into Viacom18 Group CEO Haresh Chawla.

Announcing the appointment Chawla said, "Given Raj's extensive experience and a proven track record, we're confident of him charting out and leading Colors' next phase of growth. Raj will be singularly focused on consolidating Colors' dominance in the GEC space." Talking of his appointment Nayak said, "I've always admired Colors for the way it changed the landscape of Indian GEC space within a short span. It's got an amazing team of talented people and I look forward to working with them to continue to create newer benchmarks in the industry."

Last year, after parting ways with NDTV, Nayak formed Aidem Ventures, an independent media consulting and sales & marketing company. Nayak, along with some of his associates had held 26 per cent in NDTV Media. NDTV and Nayak then entered into an agreement, under which the media house bought back the shares of Nayak and his associates in NDTV Media.  Nayak when launched Aidem had aimed to grow the company in years to become a major media player in India and overseas.

Prior to forming his own venture Nayak was CEO of NDTV Media Limited for a period of over seven years. He also spent 10 years at STAR TV Group, where he was the Executive Vice President, Sales & Marketing and was responsible for strategy, packaging and marketing for all STAR Channels as also the revenue for the Group. He was also on the Board of Vijay TV and Indya.com.

Nayak has had close to 25 years of experience in the media industry and in these years he has handled some of the biggest media brands in India like ESPN STAR Sports, STAR TV Network, NDTV and many more.

Colors very recently cut its advertising time by almost 40 per cent to return to the top position in viewership ratings after nearly a year, replacing Star Plus. The channel's gross rating points (GRPs) jumped from 231 four weeks ago to 300 in the week that began on 27 March, ahead of Star Plus' 261 points and Zee's 194 in the same period, according to data from television ratings firm TAM Media Research Pvt. Ltd. GRP is the total of television rating points (TRPs), which reflect the percentage of viewers watching a programme at a particular time.