MUMBAI: There has been a bit of a portfolio reshuffle at Sony. Sunder Aaron who used to be the business head of AXN, Animax and Pix will now focus all his attention on the film channel.

Sony CEO Kunal Dasgupta says that the move was necessitated as Pix has been growing fast and requires more attention. Looking after AXN and Animax India now as country head is an old hand. Rohit Bhandari who had joined Sony back in 2000 and oversaw AXN’s rise is back in the saddle. Bhandari was in India till 2005 and had held the post of Sony assistant VP marketing. He then went to the Singapore headquarters as the management felt that having an India hand on the board would help them understand one of their key markets better.

Initially Bhandari was AXN and Animax Asia assistant VP marketing. Then he became the director for South Asia. He later became senior director ad sales Southeast Asia and India. “My tenure at AXN and Sony has been great. I learnt a lot, which has helped in my growth and development. The biggest thing for me working at an Asia level was getting to understand how a big show like The Amazing Race works.

“Being a part of the senior management helped me understand how I can approach things in a different way. I also learnt how the brand could be treated in a more effective manner. I have also imbibed cross-cultural learnings from a country like Philippines, which is a different market from India. How these learnings can be imbibed here is something that I will work on over the next several weeks. It has also been exciting to grow new revenue streams from countries Pakistan. It is a separate commercial feed and started running from April.”

He adds that Vietnam is another market where AXN is looking to grow the ad sales business. Taiwan and India are the two biggest contributors in terms of ad revenue. “In India, my focus will also be on original productions and local shows which can accelerate ad sales due to programme integration opportunities for clients.”