Dish TV Indiahas appointed Varun Jhaas Chief Business Officer of VZY, its connected digital entertainment platform, strengthening the leadership team behind the group’s expansion into non-DTH entertainment.
In his new role, Jha will lead VZY’s overall business agenda, including growth, monetisation, strategic partnerships, consumer strategy and new business opportunities. The appointment comes as Dish TV works to develop VZY into an important part of its broader connected entertainment business.
VZY brings together streaming services, live television and connected viewing experiences across mobile devices and larger screens. Its proposition is built around giving consumers a simpler way to discover and access entertainment across different platforms, formats and devices.
A mandate focused on growth and monetisation
Jha’s responsibilities extend beyond managing the platform’s day-to-day business. He will be expected to identify new growth opportunities, develop partnerships and shape a consumer strategy that can help VZY establish itself in an increasingly fragmented entertainment market.
Dish TV sees the platform as part of its effort to create scalable revenue streams outside its core direct-to-home television operations.
Manoj Dobhal, CEO and Executive Director of Dish TV India Limited, described VZY as one of the group’s key bets in the non-DTH segment. He said Jha’s experience across start-ups and established consumer businesses would support the company as it works to turn VZY into a significant growth engine.
Jha brings more than 18 years of experience across digital payments, fintech, e-commerce, mobility, entertainment and education technology. His career includes roles in businesses at their early stages as well as organisations moving into larger phases of growth.
Experience across payments, technology and entertainment
Jha was part of the early leadership team at PayU India, where he contributed to the development and expansion of the company’s consumer payments business.
He later led Airtel’s digital entertainment portfolio, including Wynk Music and Airtel Xstream. That role involved working across content, product, distribution and monetisation within Airtel’s consumer ecosystem.
His career also includes leadership positions at Snapdeal, Zoomcar and Cuemath. Across these companies, he worked in areas such as business operations, profit and loss management, product development, growth, marketing, monetisation and international markets.
This mix of operating experience is central to Dish TV’s plans for VZY. The platform will need to balance product development and consumer adoption with sustainable monetisation as it competes for attention across multiple screens and services.
Dish TV targets a simpler entertainment experience
The company’s strategy for VZY is shaped by a challenge familiar to digital viewers. Consumers have access to more content than before, but that content is often divided across different applications, subscriptions, formats and devices.
Gaurav Goel, Chief Strategy Officer at Dish TV India Limited, said the group sees an opportunity to make entertainment discovery more intuitive and personalised. Dish TV’s stated ambition is to develop VZY as a digitally native, AI-led ecosystem that changes how consumers find and experience content across screens.
Rather than functioning only as a content aggregation platform, VZY is being positioned around discovery, personalisation and ease of use. The company wants the service to reduce the effort required to move between streaming content, live television and connected viewing experiences.
Jha said the abundance of content has also made deciding what to watch and navigating between services more complicated. He believes the next generation of entertainment platforms will be shaped not only by the volume of available content, but also by discovery, personalisation, simplicity and viewing habits.
His immediate focus will be to work with the VZY team on building a consumer-first platform while developing the business into a meaningful digital growth engine for Dish TV.
Jha holds a management degree from the Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management at IIT Bombay and a Bachelor of Engineering degree from Mumbai University.
