ALTBalaji announces new chief business officer as Ektaa and Shobha Kapoor step down

Video streaming platform ALTBalaji has said Ektaa R Kapoor and Shobha Kapoor have stepped down from their positions as heads of the company. This is a strategic decision to focus on their other ventures.

While the process of stepping down started last year, ALTBalaji has now appointed Vivek Koka as chief business officer.

“We are thrilled to welcome Vivek Koka to the ALTBalaji family. His expertise and vision for the future of digital entertainment make him the perfect choice to lead the platform into its next phase of growth and success,” Ektaa R Kapoor said in a statement.

Under Koka’s leadership, ALTBalaji will be exploring new opportunities to expand its reach and impact, both in India and globally. Though Ektaa R Kapoor and Shobha Kapoor have stepped down from the management of ALTBalaji, Balaji telefilms, the holding company, will still hold shares in the platform.

In an interview last year, Nachiket Pantvaidya, former group chief executive officer, ALTBalaji had said Balaji Telefilms feels mass-market audiences will drive the growth for its digital platform ALTBalaji that had added 3.98 million subscriptions over the first nine months of FY22. The platform had planned to add 10-15 shows to its library last year that were be focused on the Hindi heartland besides dubbing them in regional languages.

To be sure, media experts admit there is a market for what ALTBalaji typically offers but not without challenges. As a platform, they are targeting two separate sets of audiences. First, the female at home who is hooked to TV and second, the youth that is looking for violent or erotic content. While there is a big youth market to tap into, they are also exploring programming available on other, global OTTs and it remains to be seen if ALT content works for them.