Essel Group enters advertising space VIA OOH

Televisionpoint.com Correspondent | Mumbai
Essel Group is embarking into the out-of-home (OOH) advertising business space with the acquisition of VIA (Vehicular, Infrastructure and Airports) OOH, which was launched in April 2008. Farid Kureshi has joined the group as head of VIA OOH, which is now being relaunched as Essel's subsidiary.

Farid Kureshi, founder, VIA OOH, will continue as chief executive officer of the new venture, and will be based in Delhi. Its cofounder, Shamik Talukder, will stay on as vice-president, sales and revenue.

Kureshi brings over 20 years of experience in print media and Entertainment industry. He has worked with Indian Express, Pioneer, Chitralekha Group of publications, Star Movies, Radio Mirchi handling a variety of responsibilities. His last assignment being with Times OOH, where he was controller of operations.

In addition to OOH, he would also be responsible for advertising sales through Internet for Essel group companies. This is expected to help synergize its efforts across the media value chain.

The Essel Group enters the group of entertainment and media companies that have stepped into the OOH domain, which includes News Corp's News Outdoor India, Entertainment Network (India) Ltd's (ENIL's) Times OOH, Jagran Group's Jagran Engage and Reliance Big Entertainment's Big Street.