MTVNI Ups Singh

LONDON, April 30: MTV
Networks International (MTVNI) has promoted Bhavneet Singh to executive VP and
managing director of its emerging markets group.

In this position, Singh
will continue to oversee all aspects of MTVNI’s businesses across its portfolio
of music, kids and comedy brands in Central and Eastern Europe and the Middle
East, as well as Russia, a new addition to his remit. His key priorities for
2008 will include further strengthening the company’s digital-media offering in
the region and building greater scale and presence with the Nickelodeon and
Comedy Central channel brands. Based in London, Singh will report to Alex
Ferrari, the COO of MTVNI.

Since joining MTVNI’s
emerging markets group in 2006, Singh has been credited with consolidating
MTVNI’s assets in the region, such as the merger and development of the
company’s Polish operations; MTV Networks Polska now operates seven channels,
including the first localized Comedy Central channel to launch outside of the U.S.
MTVNI’s first pan-European HD channel, which is slated to launch this year,
will also be produced and broadcast out of the company’s Warsaw hub.

Singh has also been
responsible for a raft of new channels, including MTV Arabia, which launched in
November 2007 to a potential audience of nearly 200 million people, the biggest
potential audience at launch in MTV’s 25-year brand history, and the upcoming
launch of Nickelodeon Arabia, a localized, Arabic-language free-to-air channel
dedicated exclusively to kids across the Middle East. Other achievements
include the launches of inaugural MTV operations in Turkey, Hungary and the
Ukraine. Additionally, Singh has overseen the launch of digital-media services
in the region such as MTV On-Demand in Romania, a Hebrew-language broadband MTV
service in Israel (www.mtv.co.il) and three mobile TV channels. He initially
joined MTV Networks in June 2004 as the director of international sales
strategy. Prior to this, he held
senior commercial positions at Manchester United Plc, IMG TWI in India and
Discovery Channel in Asia.

Ferrari commented:
“Bhavneet has been a tremendous asset to MTVNI and this promotion is extremely
well deserved. He has been the architect behind the rapid growth and
diversification of our business in Central and Eastern Europe and the Middle
East, that has resulted in the significant penetration of our brands into many
and diverse countries. Under Bhavneet’s leadership, the emerging markets group
has established itself as one of the fastest-growing businesses in our network
and I have no doubt that this is just the start of things to come.”

—By Irene Lew