~ Ex-Chief Brand Officer gets organisation-wide brand + IP brief; Studios chief owns branded content from idea to revenue ~
Mumbai, September 2026: Network18 has elevated Ganesh Iyer to Chief Marketing Officer, widening his remit across marketing, branded content and IP. In parallel, Mihir Bhatt — who joined in April as Chief Content Officer for News18 Studio — steps up as Chief Content Officer, Branded Content.
Iyer previously served as Chief Brand Officer, sharpening Network18’s news brand portfolio and creative thinking across marketing and branded content. As CMO he will oversee the broader Branded Content, IP and Marketing agenda, working with leadership across clusters including EBN, ILC, News18 Studio, Firstpost, Moneycontrol, Network18 Connected and Creator18. Brand marketing heads will report to him on a dotted line, aimed at tighter coordination of brand strategy.
He continues to lead the central unit headed by Sharmistha Gupta (new ideas, strategic pitches, brand initiatives), with creative and promo teams led by Aman and Sonali still under his watch. Bhatt’s expanded brief covers branded content across News18 Studio, EBN and ILC — marquee IPs, revenue innovation — while he keeps reporting to Shiv for the News18 Studio business. A subset of the central ideation team led by Rahul Thagele moves to work directly with Bhatt and Studios, pulling ideation closer to execution and speeding turnaround.
Marketing take: Network18 is splitting the job most media houses blur — one CMO owning brand gravity across the portfolio, one Studios chief owning branded content as a P&L craft. In a market where news IPs are fighting for advertiser money as hard as ratings, that split may matter more than the titles.
