Up to 50 people leave Multi Screen Media

After the departures of Kunal Dasgupta and Albert Almeida, there are reports out today suggesting up to 50 people will be exiting Multi Screen Media (formerly Sony Entertainment Television India) in the coming weeks.

It is believed that this outward bound list is long and the number varies from 40 to 50 people across the board. MSM officials were not available for comments. A company source explained to Exchange4Media, “There were no official announcements in the company regarding anything, but everyone is concerned with all that happened in the day.”

Sources at MSM expect this churn to continue for at least the next few days. A senior company source said, “There are various reasons why people are leaving, and this could also include the company rationalising costs. The picture would be clear once the dust settles on what is going on.”

There are at least five names from the MSM sales function that have left the company. These include Vinod Berry, Senior VP, Credit and Revenue Management; Abbas Muni, Sales Strategy; Vijay Koshy, who was looking after the sales of Pix; Jagdip Dighe, Senior VP, Client Servicing; and Kaushal Modi, Senior VP Integration, Syndication, Mobile & Telephony.

Some of the other names are Avnish Agarwal, Network Head of Promos; and Pinaki Sen, VP, MIS. It was also the end of Priya Bhave�۪s stint with the company, who was heading the non-fiction programming for SET. This was Bhave�۪s second stint with Sony, and she was a consultant to the company working on a six-month contract. The contract ended on March 1st 2009, and Bhave has not renewed her contract with MSM.

There were some speculations around two other names ��� Vivek Tiwari, who was Senior VP ��� Technical Services & Infrastructure, is believed to have moved to another function in the company that is in the process of being instituted. Another name that got caught in the exit buzz was that of Nitin Nadkarni, the CFO of the company. However, several MSM officials have denied Nadkarni�۪s exit.

The changes are being undertaken in an effort to restructure the organisation. The network’s flagship channel Sony Entertainment Television Asia has been struggling in the ratings, lagging behind STAR Plus, Colors and ZEE TV, in fourth place.

Recently, Man Jit Singh took over as chairman of the board. Since there, the industry has been abuzz with news that Multi Screen Media Asia’s Executive Vice President and Head of International Business Rajan Singh will be promoted as CEO.