When Gaurav Banerjee took charge as the Managing Director and CEO of Sony Pictures Networks India (SPNI) in August 2024, the mandate was neither simple nor ceremonial.
The network was emerging from one of the most unsettled phases in its history, the collapse of the proposed merger with Zee Entertainment, months of regulatory uncertainty, leadership fatigue and an industry on the cusp of a major consolidation that would eventually result in the formation of JioStar a few months later.
SPNI was no longer a market leader, nor a natural challenger. It was a legacy broadcaster searching for direction in an ecosystem where scale, sports and streaming were rapidly redefining power.
In that context, Banerjee’s early moves appear less like a change in leadership style and more like an attempt to quietly redesign how SPNI functions.
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An Insider’s Playbook
Banerjee arrived with a long operating history in Indian television, having spent close to two decades at Star India and later Disney Star, where he handled general entertainment, regional networks, sports and eventually the combined broadcast-digital ecosystem.
That background shapes much of what has followed at SPNI.
Rather than signalling a sharp public pivot, Banerjee’s first phase has been about internal alignment, stabilising the organisation, resetting reporting structures and rethinking how content and platforms are managed.
Within months of taking charge, SPNI announced a broad leadership reshuffle. Business and content responsibilities were reorganised across Hindi general entertainment, regional clusters, sports and digital. Several senior roles were recalibrated, with clearer separation between network strategy, content creation and platform execution.
Strategically, the restructuring appears aimed at breaking long-standing silos between television and SonyLIV, and building a more integrated content engine that can deploy programming across multiple platforms.
For a broadcaster facing pressure on both advertising and subscription revenues, the logic is straightforward: content has to travel further, monetise more windows and serve more than one distribution pipe.
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A core focus for Sony Pictures Networks India (SPNI) has to be fixing the revenue engine, where the network is visibly lagging behind peers. SPNI’s OTT revenue stood at around ₹1,100 crore in FY25 and is expected to remain broadly around at ₹1,100–1,200 crore in FY26, according to industry sources, pointing to sort of a stagnation at a time when the market is scaling sharply.
The contrast with competitors is stark: JioStar’s total revenue in FY26 is expected to touch ₹33,000–35,000 crore, with JioHotstar alone projected to generate ₹9,000–10,000 crore. ZEEL’s total revenue is estimated at about ₹8,000 crore, while Zee5 is expected to clock ₹1,200–1,300 crore. These numbers underline how SPNI has fallen behind not just in scale, but also in growth momentum, particularly in digital. For Banerjee, this makes sharper monetisation, as critical as content investments.
SPNI’s total revenue for FY25 stood at Rs 6,338 crore, down from Rs 6,641 crore in FY24. Revenue from operations declined to Rs 6,151 crore from Rs 6,435 crore in the previous year. The company’s domestic revenue fell to Rs 5,575 crore in FY25 from Rs 5,777 crore in FY24.
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The advertising revenue of the company declined to Rs 2,606 crore, down from Rs 2,857 crore in FY24. Its subscription revenue grew by 1.1 % to Rs 3,244 crore, compared to Rs 3,206 crore. Revenue share from distribution and advertising time declined to Rs 86 crore in FY25, compared to Rs 119 crore in FY24.
Total profit for the year dropped sharply to Rs 456 crore from Rs 843 crore in FY24.
Platform dependence: YouTube as a double-edged sword
Another structural challenge Banerjee has inherited is SPNI’s growing dependence on YouTube as a monetisation and reach platform. With a sizeable portion of its library and episodic content available on YouTube, the platform has become a meaningful contributor to digital ad revenues and audience scale, especially in non-metro and price-sensitive markets.
According to sources, SPNI’s annual revenue from YouTube is around Rs 250-300 crore. According to industry observers Sony TV's viewership has been affected by a general shift of viewers towards digital platforms, but uploading of the content on YouTube by the network has impacted it further.
Over-reliance on YouTube caps long-term value creation, given platform economics, algorithm dependency and limited pricing power. As part of the turnaround strategy, the challenge for Banerjee is to convert YouTube’s massive funnel into deeper engagement and paid consumption on SonyLIV, rather than letting the free ecosystem become a permanent substitute for SPNI’s own OTT platform.
Southern push: A structural bet on regional scale
The southern region is now central to SPNI’s next phase of growth under Banerjee, both for scale and digital relevance. In a major strategic shift, SPNI is making its first serious entry into the southern markets, marking a decisive break from its historically Hindi-centric positioning. To anchor this expansion, the network has elevated Rajaraman Sundaram as Chief Content Officer, South, tasking him with driving regional growth, overseeing content planning and accelerating programming expansion across both linear TV and SonyLIV.
The agenda in the South hinges on deep localisation, sharper original commissioning in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada, and tighter integration between TV and OTT content pipelines.
Strategically, Banerjee is positioning the South not as an adjunct market, but as a core growth engine that can offset saturation and monetisation pressure in the Hindi belt.
Reframing the content and platform equation
One consistent theme in Banerjee’s public comments since joining SPNI has been his emphasis on the industry being “not in a comfortable space” and his call for innovation across television and streaming.
This framing mirrors the internal changes underway.
SPNI has traditionally operated as a strong linear television network with a separate, relatively smaller digital arm. Under Banerjee, the push appears to be towards a more platform-agnostic content strategy, where programming decisions are not made only for weekly television ratings, but also for digital consumption, catch-up viewing and syndication.
This shift is visible in how leadership responsibilities have been structured and in the renewed attention to SonyLIV as a growth lever rather than a support platform.
The underlying bet is that SPNI cannot compete purely on distribution scale. Its competitive edge, if any, has to come from how efficiently it develops, owns and monetises intellectual property across platforms.
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The sports question: Staying relevant without overreaching
Unlike rivals who have built dominance through aggressive rights acquisition, SPNI’s strategy under Banerjee has leaned towards selective partnerships and shared distribution. The collaboration with JioStar around India’s tours of England, which combined Sony’s broadcast reach with JioStar’s digital infrastructure, reflects this thinking.
Rather than trying to outbid larger players in an increasingly expensive rights market, SPNI appears to be exploring ways to remain present in marquee sports without overexposing its balance sheet.
For a network that no longer commands the deepest pockets in the industry, this partnership-driven model may be less about ambition and more about risk management - preserving relevance in sports while accepting that outright dominance is no longer realistic.
The Netflix–CID collaboration
The decision to collaborate with Netflix around the revival of CID has been widely seen as a symbolic moment.
At one level, it is a revival of a familiar television franchise. At another, it reflects a strategic repositioning: SPNI acting not only as a broadcaster but also as a content studio supplying IP to global platforms.
This aligns with a broader industry trend where legacy broadcasters are increasingly monetising their libraries and franchises through streaming partnerships.
For SPNI, which lacks the streaming scale of its largest competitors, this route offers an alternative growth path, one that emphasises ownership and creative supply rather than platform competition.
It also suggests a pragmatic acceptance that collaboration, rather than confrontation, may be the more viable strategy in a platform-dominated ecosystem.
Organisational reset as strategy
Perhaps the most consequential of SPNI’s strategic moves under Banerjee has been the internal reorganisation of its leadership ranks.
Over the past 12–18 months, the network has seen a combination of exits and new appointments that reflect both the industry’s broader pressures and a deliberate shift in operating priorities.
Several long-serving executives exited or transitioned out of the company, including Neeraj Vyas, former head of the Hindi entertainment and movies cluster; Leena Lele Dutta, head of kids and animation; Sandeep Mehrotra, head of ad sales; Tushar Shah, Chief Marketing Officer and business head for movies, regional, FTA and infotainment; Soha D Kulkarni, vice-president and creative head of fiction programming; and Danish Khan, business head of SonyLIV and Studio NEXT, who is set to leave by March 2026 after a decade with SPNI.
In parallel, SPNI elevated and appointed several leaders to align with its renewed content and platform-agnostic focus. As part of a content and monetisation-oriented realignment announced in January 2026, Nachiket Pantvaidya was tasked with leading Sony Entertainment Television (SET), Sony Marathi and movie production; Ajay Bhalwankar was given responsibility for Sony SAB, movies, FTA and infotainment channels; Rajaraman Sundaram was appointed to drive regional expansion in South India; and Ambesh Tiwari took charge of Sony AATH and the kids business.
On the monetisation side, Rajesh Kaul assumed the role of Chief Revenue Officer, with Akshay Agrawal elevated to head linear ad sales, Makarand Palekar to head linear distribution, Ranjana Mangla expanded to cover digital ad sales and YouTube strategy, and Manish Aggarwal put in charge of SonyLIV’s B2B and syndication business. Support functions were also realigned, with Gaurav Laghate leading corporate brand and communications and Manu Wadhwa continuing as CHRO with added oversight of administration and facilities.
Positioning beyond SPNI
Banerjee’s industry roles, including his appointment as BARC chairman and his public advocacy through industry forums, also serve a strategic function.
By engaging closely with measurement systems, policy discussions and creative-economy narratives, Banerjee positions SPNI within the broader institutional framework of Indian media at a time when regulation, ratings and consolidation are all in flux.
This is less about personal visibility and more about ensuring that SPNI remains relevant in industry conversations that shape advertising flows and policy outcomes.
Preparing for an uncertain second phase
What remains unspoken, but increasingly evident, is that SPNI’s long-term future may not lie in remaining a standalone broadcast network.
Banerjee has publicly acknowledged the need to address portfolio gaps and explore mergers and acquisitions. In a market that is consolidating rapidly around a few dominant platforms, this signals openness to alliances, joint ventures or future corporate restructuring.
Seen in that light, many of his current moves, cleaning up the organisation, strengthening IP ownership, stabilising sports presence and repositioning the company as a creative supplier, also prepare SPNI for optionality.
Whether that means future partnerships, minority investments or another merger attempt remains to be seen.