Pradeep Prabhu Email & Phone Number

Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Additional responsibility to lead Content Alliances in addition to the current business planning and strategy role.As head of content alliances, my role at Viacom18 Studios is to build exciting partnerships with production houses, directors and talent who are shaping mainstream entertainment. Lead the entire process of greenlighting/acquiring content by structuring deals, waterfalls and negotiating major deal terms. Own the content calendar by working with the internal and external content creators. Develop the Studio’s content strategy driven by strategic objectives in sync with changing audience preferences, near-term market conditions and annual budgets. Working with senior leadership within the organization to translate strategic initiatives into multi-year roadmap with complete cost and capital requirements.

Mumbai Area, India

At Viacom18, I oversee the Business Planning and Strategy team that is responsible for Content Planning, Business Strategy and Operations. This team is the primary point of contact for all content creators and owns the entire process of feasibility, greenlighting, deal structuring and negotiation for all content acquisitions. The Business Planning and Strategy team at Viacom18 Studios ensures consistently positive ROI while translating content strategy into financial decisions spanning production, acquisition and pricing of rights for shows and films.Represent acquisitions team interests across the company (operations, legal, finance, commercial, syndication) on a regular basis and as needed on a project basis. While there is an outward looking aspect in terms of conducting market research, tracking and compiling industry trends and competitive analysis, the role also involves developing KPIs, metrics and dashboards for finance, content and audit teams, that enable predictive as well as post-mortem analytics for continued optimization of decision making around new projects and partnerships.Other responsibilities of the team include:Budgeting and Planning - formulation of annual and monthly business plan and key performance metrics. Identify trade-offs and potential shortfalls or surpluses to meet long range plans.This role is the primary point of contact for senior management and external auditors for content amortization and its related financial policies. Prepare and create models and analysis to support current and future amortization policies.Prepare insightful presentations including guidance and financial update materials for the board and executives.Partner with finance team to review the schedule of estimated future contractual commitments for proper capital planning and supporting near-term and long-term P&L and Cash forecasts.

Mumbai Area, India

As the project lead for Voot Select, shaped the strategic and operational direction of over-the-top (OTT) video subscription business by building a strong value proposition and business plan to challenge large incumbents in the OTT subscription space. Identified critical success factors for the subscription business, defined key metrics and lead strategic projects to drive success by collaborating cross-functionally with key leaders across Business, Product, Technology, Content and Marketing.Created a play book for identifying and driving partnerships for subscriber acquisitions basis benefits, costs and potential risks and assess their potential impact on paid subscriptions through pricing, promotions and bundling. Created the billing and payments framework and subscription management capability to go pay in India and Internationally. Collaborated with industry experts, thought leaders (Payments and Subscription Economy) and Global partners to build payments across various instruments such as pre-paid instruments, wallets and UPI as a core expertise for Global Subscription Play.Worked with the product team to design the new UI/UX and feature set for behind-the-paywall experience for Voot Select.

Mumbai Area, India

Burrp was successfully acquired by BookMyShow (Big Tree Entertainment) in 2017. Led end-to-end negotiations from identifying the acquirer and investor to closure of the deal. Responsible for the overall P&L, direction and management of the business unit to ensure continuous and sustainable growth.Developed strategic partnerships with formidable players like Dineout, NearBuy, BookMyShow and WowTables for sustained competitive advantage through new product offerings.Built sales plans to ensure achievement of agreed sales volume across different products and geographies while enhancing market share for the brand. Grew sales 100% y-o-y. Guiding the marketing, brand management and trade marketing processes in order to actualize business strategy through effective marketing and brand promotion. Re-launched the brand in October 2015 and grew it 33% over a 6 month period as per Nielsen Brand Research. Built agile cost-effective operational teams to take on larger Unicorns in the space. Hired and trained a staff of 200+ across 6 geographies in less than a year to create one of the robust teams in food-tech.

Mumbai Area, India

Taking over added responsibility of regional broadcast business - Colors Marathi & Colors Gujarati

Mumbai Area, India

Provided financial leadership as business partner to the Motion Pictures, Consumer Products, Digital and Regional Entertainment Divisions (Colors Marathi & Colors Gujarati) with a peak annual turnover of Rs. 600+ Crs. Part of the team that delivered 36+ movies including blockbuster award winning movies such as Queen, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, Madras Cafe, Special 26 and Drishyam. Influenced executive level decision making through deep analytical insight into content acquisition, monetization and marketing that eventually led to the movie studio business turning profitable. Navigated the business through a series of challenges and crises during an organizational change linked to people movement and unviable projects to the tune of Rs. 75+ Crs. Entrusted with the authority to represent the interests of the company across content acquisition, operations, legal, finance, distribution and marketing to spearhead settlement to the tune of Rs. 25+ Crs. that resulted in reducing risk and improving profitability. Required liaising with various business partners such as producers, distributors, studios, talent and industry bodies for various matters pertaining to specific projects and business in general. Participated in all aspects of negotiations for content acquisition such as financial analysis, budgeting and forecasting, contract drafting, structuring and profit sharing. Advising the CFO by providing a nuanced point of view on new business opportunities for prioritization, resource allocation decisions and analysis of business performance. Plan, coordinate, and implement the annual and quarterly budgets. Understand accounting principles and regulatory requirements specific to the business and advise on expected outcomes. Manage end-to-end view of the business, partnering with key members of the Finance team on specialized execution to enable business acceleration.

Mumbai Area, India

Launched KRATOS, an end-to-end cloud based advertising commercial delivery platform along with Tata Communications’ as a strategic partner. Responsible for the overall management and running of the company including sales and fundraising. Primarily to bootstrap, worked with a range of startups across E-Commerce, Finance, Technology, Mobile and served these companies on a variety of strategic, operational, and organizational issues.

Mumbai Area, India

Taking over additional responsibility of Investor Relations. Provide analysis of information and reports to the senior management and the investor group. Re-structured the business to save costs in excess of 70%. Built business plans and memos for second round of equity infusion.

Mumbai Area, India

Highlight: Executed the biggest Greenfield broadcasting venture in the Indian sub-continent as part of the Corporate Strategy Group that raised Rs. 1,000 Crs. High pressure, high impact role. Responsible for creating the strategic plan that involved providing the board and profit center heads a rigorous, quantifiable strategic perspective in relation to markets, competitors and emerging opportunities. Involved creation of operational plans in sync with the strategic plan by co-ordination with various departments.Responsible for Treasury operations overseeing deployment of 800 Crs. over 18 months.

Mumbai Area, India

Highlight: Built the “Business Dashboard” to distribute new information in real time that provided a snapshot of the entire business for senior management that continues to be at the heart of decision making at Star TV. Budgeting and Reforecast of revenues and costs for the Broadcasting, Wireless, Licensing and Merchandising and Internet Business segments of STAR by co-ordination and collaboration with various departments so as to know what others are planning in order to provide support for meeting overall company objectives. Identify gaps and advise alternative strategies to bridge the same.Consolidation of plans from all areas of the company and distribute new information in real time.Identification and exploration of opportunity gaps and strategies for the group.Streamlined the management information systems for the group.

M.B.A., Finance, A

Activities and Societies: Alumni Team Board, Audio-Visual coordinator, Orchestra, Dramatics and Singing team, Debate team

Bachelor’S Degree, Commerce, A

Activities and Societies: Dramatics and Singing team, Bike Stunts team, Martial Arts team