Prasar Bharati CEO is new IBF chairman

The Indian Broadcasting Foundation has a new chairman in KS Sarma, the new Prasar Bharati CEO.

Sarma‘s appointment was decided at an IBF board meeting held in New Delhi yesterday. The meeting was reportedly attended by Zee TV CEO Sandeep Goyal, Star India head Peter Mukerjea, Discovery Networks India head Deepak Shourie, Turner Broadcasting‘s Anshuman Mishra, UTV‘s Ronnie Screwvala, Sahara TV‘s Mahesh Prasad, Sabe TV vice chairman Markand Adhikari and Eenadu‘s I Venkat.

Sarma replaces Anil Baijal, former Prasar Bharati acting CEO and additional secretary in the Information and Broadcasting ministry. Reports say the IBF board meeting also discussed other issues like the new unified television rating system being put into place with the impending merger of TAM and INTAM. Conditional Access System and the role of the IBF role in WTO negotiations were also discussed, say reports.

The long pending issue of payment defaults by ad agencies to broadcasters was also taken up at the meeting, reports say, with the IBF even considering a ban on defaulting agencies. The IBF is likely to meet with representatives of the AAAI in Mumbai to discuss the issue.