NDTV has strengthened its digital video leadership with the appointment of Akhil Bhalla as Product Head, Live and Connected TV, signalling a sharper focus on live news and connected television as viewing habits continue to evolve across screens and platforms.

The development was shared through a LinkedIn post update, in which Bhalla announced the start of his new role at NDTV. The appointment underlines the network’s intent to build more scalable, engaging, and future-ready live and connected TV products at a time when audiences are increasingly shifting between smartphones, desktops, and smart televisions.

In his new role, Bhalla will lead strategy and growth across NDTV’s live and connected TV offerings, with a clear mandate to strengthen the network’s digital video ecosystem. The emphasis will be on creating seamless content experiences, deepening audience engagement, and making live news more intuitive and compelling, regardless of where or how viewers choose to watch.

Bhalla joins NDTV after a significant stint at what was formerly Disney+ Hotstar, now JioHotstar, where he played a key role in building the platform’s news ecosystem from the ground up. His work involved aggregating over 45 national and regional news channels across multiple languages and shaping news as a product by integrating live feeds, clips, and video-on-demand into a unified viewing experience. This effort not only helped scale the offering but also reportedly led to a tenfold increase in revenues within a two-year period.

Before moving into streaming, Bhalla spent several years in traditional broadcast journalism, holding senior editorial roles at Focus News, Zee News, and Aaj Tak, and earlier reporting for BBC Hindi and Reuters-linked services. This blend of newsroom experience and product-led thinking positions him uniquely at the intersection of content, technology, and audience behaviour.

With connected televisions becoming a central part of the modern living room, NDTV’s latest appointment reflects a strategic push to ensure its news content travels seamlessly from studio to smartphone to smart TV, without losing relevance, speed, or editorial depth.