Times Media & Entertainment has named Ashish Sehgal CEO of Times Network and Chief Growth Officer, effective December 1, 2025. With deep experience from ZEEL and Disney Star, Sehgal will lead strategic expansion, cross-platform growth, and new revenue initiatives across news and entertainment properties.
Ashish Sehgal’s appointment as Chief Executive Officer of Times Network, alongside his elevation as Chief Growth Officer of Times Media & Entertainment, marks a significant leadership moment for one of India’s most influential media houses. Effective 1 December 2025, the dual role brings to the Times Group a senior executive whose career has been shaped at the intersection of broadcast scale, digital acceleration, and revenue transformation—precisely the mix the company needs as it prepares for its next phase of growth in a rapidly evolving media ecosystem.
The appointment comes at a time when traditional media companies are redefining themselves amid shifting audience habits, fragmenting platforms, and intensifying competition from digital-native players. For Times Network, which spans a diverse portfolio of news and entertainment television channels, the challenge is not just to grow reach but to build integrated, future-ready businesses that can thrive across screens, formats, and revenue models. Sehgal’s mandate reflects this reality. As CEO of Times Network, he will oversee the strategic direction and expansion of the company’s television assets. As Chief Growth Officer of Times Media & Entertainment, he will take on a broader group-wide responsibility to unlock new growth opportunities, build platform synergies, and drive innovation-led revenue streams.
Sehgal arrives at Times with nearly two decades of experience at Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited, one of India’s largest and most complex media networks. During his long tenure at ZEEL, he held multiple senior leadership roles, culminating in his position as Chief Growth Officer. In that role, he was responsible for overseeing broadcast and digital revenue across a network of more than 50 channels, managing digital platform operations, expanding international markets, and scaling branded content businesses. His responsibilities placed him at the heart of ZEEL’s commercial engine, requiring him to balance legacy television strengths with the demands of a fast-growing digital ecosystem.
At ZEEL, Sehgal developed a reputation for unifying revenue strategies across multiple verticals—broadcast advertising, digital monetisation, content partnerships, and branded solutions—at a time when advertisers were increasingly looking for integrated offerings rather than siloed media buys. His experience navigating both domestic and international markets also gave him a global perspective on how Indian media brands can travel, adapt, and monetise beyond national borders. This background is expected to be particularly valuable to Times Media & Entertainment as it explores diversification and innovation to drive sustainable growth.
Before his long stint at ZEEL, Sehgal played a key role at Disney Star, where he led sales and network expansion during a formative period for the broadcaster. He was instrumental in launching the network’s flagship channel and in driving national broadcast sales and distribution. That phase of his career exposed him to the fundamentals of building scale in Indian television—from establishing distribution muscle and advertiser trust to positioning channels in an intensely competitive market. The combination of this early experience with his later work in digital and cross-platform growth has shaped Sehgal into a leader who understands both the traditional strengths of television and the imperatives of a digital-first future.
At Times Network, Sehgal’s responsibilities will span both consolidation and expansion. The network operates in a media environment where news consumption is increasingly real-time, multi-platform, and influenced by social and digital cues, while entertainment audiences are spoilt for choice across streaming services and short-form platforms. Steering the strategic direction of both news and entertainment channels will require not only editorial and programming vision, but also a sharp focus on distribution, monetisation, and audience engagement across platforms.
One of Sehgal’s key strengths lies in building cross-platform growth initiatives—an area that is becoming central to the Times Group’s ambitions. With audiences no longer confined to a single medium, media companies are under pressure to create seamless experiences across television, digital platforms, social media, and branded content environments. Sehgal’s track record of aligning broadcast, digital, and branded content verticals positions him well to drive this integration, ensuring that content, sales, and marketing strategies reinforce one another rather than operate in isolation.
His appointment also signals Times Media & Entertainment’s intent to identify new revenue opportunities through diversification and innovation. As advertising models evolve and subscription, commerce, and partnership-led revenues gain prominence, the role of a Chief Growth Officer becomes critical. Sehgal is expected to focus on building scalable, future-facing businesses that can complement the core television portfolio—whether through digital platforms, content extensions, international markets, or new forms of brand collaboration. His experience in branded content, in particular, aligns with a growing advertiser demand for storytelling-led solutions that go beyond conventional spot advertising.
Industry observers see the move as a strategic one, bringing a commercially astute leader into a group that has long been associated with editorial influence and scale. By combining the CEO role at Times Network with a group-level growth mandate, the company is effectively signalling that growth and integration will be central to its next chapter. The dual role also reflects a broader trend in media leadership, where senior executives are expected to bridge content, commerce, and technology rather than operate within narrowly defined functions.
For Sehgal, the transition represents both continuity and change. Continuity, in that he continues to work within large, complex media networks navigating similar market forces. Change, in that he now takes on a more expansive leadership role, shaping not just revenue outcomes but the overall strategic direction of one of India’s most prominent television networks. His success will depend on how effectively he can align teams across news and entertainment, broadcast and digital, creativity and commerce.
As the Indian media landscape continues to shift, with audiences demanding credibility, convenience, and choice, and advertisers seeking measurable impact and integrated solutions, Times Network’s leadership bet on Ashish Sehgal underscores the importance of experience, adaptability, and growth-oriented thinking. With his appointment set to take effect in December 2025, the industry will be watching closely to see how his vision translates into strategy—and how Times Network positions itself for relevance and resilience in the years ahead.
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