Fox Establishes New Unit for VR & Immersive Entertainment

LOS ANGELES: Salil Mehta has been named president of FoxNext, a newly created division that will work across Twentieth Century Fox Film and Fox Networks Group to develop video gaming, location-based entertainment, virtual and augmented reality productions.

Mehta, who first joined Fox in 2013 and most recently served as president of content management for Twentieth Century Fox Film, will begin his new role immediately. He will report jointly to Peter Rice, the chairman and CEO of Fox Networks Group, and Stacey Snider, the chairman and CEO of Twentieth Century Fox Film.

FoxNext will oversee the production of studio franchise VR experiences and work to commercialize Fox’s overall VR strategy. FoxNext will also combine the efforts of the video-gaming groups into one new interactive unit. It will also oversee the company’s location-based entertainment business, including the development of the 20th Century Fox World theme park in Malaysia.

Rice commented: “We’re excited by the power of new technologies to drive the art of storytelling forward and we know we’ve only scratched the surface. Salil brings a strategic business vision and a deep understanding of new technologies allowing us to expand our creative capabilities.”

Snider added: “Extending our storytelling to new platforms in new ways is a constant focus for us as we look to build more touch points with consumers every day. Building on the momentum we’ve already seen in this area via the Fox Innovation Lab, FoxNext represents a natural next step in defining our long-term vision in this arena, and Salil is quite simply the perfect executive to build this group into what we know will be an industry leader.”