About

Founded as a joint venture between Viacom Inc. and the Network18 Group in 2007, Viacom 18 is one of India’s fastest growing entertainment networks that houses iconic brands offering multi-platform, multi-generational and multicultural brand experiences. Its talented legal team is comprised of 55 members including 35 lawyers and is led by group general counsel and company secretary Sujeet Jain. With the help of head of IP, litigation and regulatory Thomas George, the team has built in-house capabilities to deal with complex legal issues, its dependence on law firms and external counsel has reduced substantially. As Jain explains, ’the team structure has enabled us to minimise reliance on external sources and build an internal powerhouse of media-specific knowledge and customised solutions. As a result, we have been able to optimise both costs and productivity’. The team’s activities in the IPR area has seen them partnered with the Cell for IPR Promotion and Management (CIPAM) of the Commerce Ministry to launch a campaign to curb content piracy and for conducting IPR Awareness workshops across India. Head business and legal affairs (contracts and rights management) Anil Lale is credited with developing a solid contacts policy after synthesizing issues of various other stakeholders and for championing the development of and implementing a Rights Management System (RMS), a central repository that has an exhaustive and evolved “rights matrix” that tracks all available rights in the content inventory and across all commercial modes, media, formats and platforms. Another key member of the team is head – content regulation Padma Akella for her careful judgment exercised between creative requirements and regulatory restrictions that has ensured no serious issues are raised by regulators for content violations. In addition to liaising with virtually every business and function in the organisation and its fluid structure which enables it to frame consistent policies and novel approaches, the legal team demonstrated their value to the company by assisting Viacom 18’s merger of Prism TV that added five regional channels to its bouquet. Jain says of the deal, ‘the team, along with the finance department, handled the entire merger process with utmost precision. Despite numerous hurdles, uncertainties and ambiguity in regulatory and administrative processes, we completed the High Court approval process in record time to help the company to reap maximum benefit out of the integration. The integration exercise took almost two years, and not just in legal and regulatory issues but in overall exercise, the legal team played a pivotal role’.