Ankit Pandey Returns To Sony As Group Head For Sports Ad Sales

Ankit Pandey, group head for sports ad sales at Sony Pictures Networks India

Ankit Pandey has returned to Sony Pictures Networks India as group head for ad sales in sports, his second stint with the broadcaster. He joins from JioStar.

New role: Group Head, Ad Sales (Sports), Sony Pictures Networks India
Previous: JioStar, monetising cricket across television, digital and connected TV
At JioStar: more than Rs 240 crore in advertising revenue across bilateral cricket and the ICC Men's T20 World Cup
Bilateral cricket revenue up 243% year on year; 173% against annual revenue budget
The T20 World Cup alone delivered Rs 204.15 crore, or 101% of target
Earlier: Amagi, Viacom18 and a first Sony stint on Sony MAX

The Numbers Are The Argument

Sports ad sales is one of the few marketing jobs where performance is not a matter of interpretation. Pandey's JioStar run produced Rs 204.15 crore from the T20 World Cup at 101% of target, a 243% year-on-year rise in bilateral cricket revenue, and 173% against his annual budget.

Those figures explain the hire without anyone needing to characterise him. They also set the terms of the new job, because a person who has beaten budget by that margin arrives with the number already attached.

Ankit Pandey Sells More Than Spots

The detail worth pulling out is the OpenAI work. At JioStar he helped turn "Prompt of the Day" into a flagship branded-content property across the T20 World Cup and England-India bilateral cricket.

That is a different sale from inventory. It required building a format that belonged inside the broadcast, and finding an advertiser whose product could carry it. Live sport has become the last reliable place to reach a mass simultaneous audience, and the value increasingly sits in integrations rather than in the thirty-second break.

Why Sony, And Why Now

Sony's cricket position is not what it was, and the network's sports business now leans on properties beyond the marquee India fixtures. Bringing back someone who sold both, and who spent a first stint on Sony MAX before moving into sport, gives the sales team a person who knows the house and the category.

His path runs through Amagi on targeted television advertising, Viacom18 on the Nickelodeon cluster, then Sony and JioStar, with a client roster including OpenAI, Bajaj Finserv, GCPL, SBI Life and Crompton. Those are relationships that travel with a salesperson, which is usually the real asset being acquired.