Good Bye & Best of luck Tarun Katial

Tarun Katial joined SONY Entertainment Television on January 2004 as the Executive Vice-President, Programming & Response, to oversee the channel's creative content, programming and on-air promotions.

Before he moved on to SONY Entertainment Television he was in the position of Executive Vice President - Content & Communications at Star Network.

Katial reportedly put in his papers at STAR India following difference of opinion with top management which transferred him to its HongKong office.

Katial's joined when SET was seeing a revival in fortunes with its show, 'Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin' entering the Top 50 popularity charts (among C&S homes) in the last week of 2003.

During his entrance SET was working on a fresh line of programmes to build on Jassi's success. Long running Kkusum and CID are the other shows that keep SET's flag high in the Top 100 list.

Hailing from a media and communications background, Katial has worked with several advertising firms including Saatchi & Saatchi, Nexus Lowe and Ogilvy & Mather.

During his precious times at SET he ensured that SET is on track to achieve there strategic and business targets. It was also to make sure that all was in line in terms of content, communications, value to the consumers and advertisers.

Katial was the man behind the huge success that SET gained through the reality show Indian Idol which was viewed by billions of people around the world.

Speaking on his two-year stint in the organisation, Katial said, "I am very proud of the kind of ground breaking TV that we had been able to do for the past two years." He merely said, "I wanted to try something new in media. I'm still involved with quite a bit at Sony and I don't know for how much longer."

Tarun Katial joins ADAE's FM radio venture

Tarun Katial, executive vice-president (programming) and business head, Sony Entertainment Television (SET), joined the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Enterprise (ADAE). Katial, who was responsible for SET's format shows like Indian Idol and Fame Gurukul, will spearhead the Ambani group's radio initiative.

Ambani group, which recently bagged six licenses for FM radio in New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Chennai and Bangalore.

Recently, the group roped in Divya Gupta, former president of The Media Edge (TME) – a Rediffusion's arm – as media advisor.

Katial becomes the fourth mediaman to join the ADAE camp, which has been on a high-profile lookout for media professionals.

Katial would continue to be a consultant for SET on its programming initiatives. Prior to his stint at SET, Katial was with Star TV.