What: India’s Zee Entertainment Enterprises has built an executive team that will oversee Zee’s programming and marketing strategies for the US Hispanic market and Latin America. The Indian company recently launched its Bollywood movie channel Zee Mundo. Javier López Casella has been appointed general manager; Alfredo Bellido has been named as chief operating officer; David Caban has joined as director of programming and Rolando Figueroa has been appointed director of marketing and digital media.
Why it matters: Zee Entertainment is a leader in Indian media and entertainment and is investing to expand its “Bollywood” based content programing to Latin America and the U.S. Hispanic market. Bollywood is the sobriquet for the Hindi language film industry based in Mumbai, India, where Zee Entertainment is headquartered.
India’s Zee Entertainment Enterprises has appointed former executives from BBC Worldwide, NBCUniversal and HBO Latin America to lead its fledgling Miami-based operation.
The executive team will oversee Zee’s programming and marketing strategies for the US Hispanic market and Latin America.
Javier López Casella, a former VP of distribution and development at the commercial arm of UK pubcaster the BBC, has been appointed general manager.
Alfredo Bellido, meanwhile, has been named as chief operating officer, having previously worked for firms such as Yahoo!, Viacom and NBCUniversal.
Spanish and Latin American television veteran David Caban has joined as director of programming, having recently worked at AMC Networks Latin America and before that at HBO.
Former BBC Worldwide Channels and MGM Networks Latin America exec Rolando Figueroa has been appointed director of marketing and digital media.
The hires come after Zee launched its own Spanish-language Bollywood movie channel, Zee Mundo, in the US earlier this year.
Zee, which claims to reach more than one billion viewers globally, also plans to expand into Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Peru and Chile.
