Dr. Idris Loya, a tech and Essel Group veteran, has taken interim charge as chief executive of Zee Media Corporation Ltd (ZMCL), the company that operates news channels under the Zee brand.

ZMCL CEO Abhay Ojha has exited the company, sending in his resignation via a mail.

Indianbroadcastingworld.com couldn’t confirm it independently, but industry sources hinted that Essel Group and Zee’s founder Subhash Chandra, who had distanced himself from day-to-day company activities for over 18 months, was back to actively looking into the affairs of Essel Group companies, including Zee Entertainment and ZMCL, and was not happy with certain decisions taken at the news company.

ZMCL had promoted Ojha to CEO’s post early 2023 after appointing him as the Chief Business Officer in November 2022. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting had approved Ojha’s appointment as CEO in May 2023.

Ojha had previously worked in several leading companies in leadership positions, including in now-shuttered shopping channel ShopCJ, Star TV, IndusInd Media, Turner International India and Hindustan Unilever.

The ZMCL universe comprises 14 news channels and 30 digital platforms in 10 languages. The website said monthly unique visitors number 345+ million, while news channels viewership base is 153+ million.

ZMCL was kept outside the ambit of the now-aborted merger talks between Zee Entertainment and Sony Group’s Indian subsidiary Sony Pictures Network India and it could turn out to be an important clog in the turnaround story of Zee Entertainment being now scripted by father-son duo of Chandra and Punit Goenka.