Shikha Raina Returns To CNBC-TV18 As Senior Director, Branded Content

Shikha Raina, Senior Director for branded content and strategic partnerships at CNBC-TV18

Shikha Raina has rejoined CNBC-TV18 as west head and senior director for branded content and strategic partnerships, fourteen years after she first joined the channel as a correspondent.

New role: West Head, Senior Director, Branded Content & Strategic Partnerships, CNBC-TV18
Started her career at CNBC-TV18 in 2011 as a correspondent
Pivoted to marketing communications in 2014; two and a half years with American Express as a centurion ambassador
Then television ad sales: Zee Entertainment Enterprises, followed by three years at Times Network as region head, sales and brand innovation
From 2022: south head for brand innovation at IndiaDotcom Digital, formerly Zee Digital
Close to three years at Republic World, rising from south head to west head of branded content and innovation

Reporter Out, Strategist Back In

The shape of this career is the interesting part. Starting as a correspondent is the sort of entry point that usually locks a person into journalism for good. Raina left it in 2014 and spent the following decade on the commercial side, which is a much rarer crossing than the reverse.

Branded content is precisely where those two halves have to coexist. It fails when it reads as advertising and it fails commercially when it does not sell. Someone who has written for a newsroom and then sold for Zee, Times Network and Republic has done both jobs rather than managed people who do them.

What CNBC-TV18 Is Actually Buying

A business news channel competing for advertising against digital-first publishers has a specific problem: its audience is small, wealthy and difficult to reach elsewhere, which should command a premium, but the buying market increasingly prices on scale.

Branded content is the standard answer to that, because it sells the channel's credibility rather than its reach. Whether it works depends almost entirely on relationships, and Raina arrives with a decade of them built across three competing networks.

The Shikha Raina Detour Worth Noticing

Two and a half years at American Express as a centurion ambassador looks like an outlier on a media CV, and it is the entry that explains the rest. That job is about managing relationships with a very small number of extremely wealthy clients.

For a channel whose commercial pitch rests on reaching decision-makers rather than millions, having someone who has actually worked at that end of the market is more relevant than it first appears. On LinkedIn, Raina described the move as one taken with immense gratitude and excitement.