Gajendra Tijare

In a career spanning nearly three decades, seasoned technology & operations leader Gajendra Tijare has had a ring-side view of the diffusion of technology.

He is the head – broadcast technology and operations at Disney Star India (BTO) and overlooks the Entertainment, Sports & Infotainment genres for the network.

When Tijare started at Star tv 22+ years ago, the network ran on arcane physical tape formats that had to be physically shipped to Hongkong. Gaj (as he’s popularly known) has since helped build the nation’s most advanced digital technology platform for the world’s second biggest pay TV market. Driving convergence of technology, and transforming business & content operations has helped in faster GTM for many new channels launched by the network and the launch of the OTT Platform Hotstar. Under his watch, the network reach has grown both domestically and Internationally.

Powering innovation, pioneering change, and unlocking monetization opportunities for the organization have been Tijare’s guiding principles. Using these he has a series of firsts under his belt: the first Indian network to transition from analogue to digital tech; the world’s first 4K cricket broadcast; and the first to harness the power of Unreal Gaming engine for live TV content, Adsharp – ad localization, contextual advertising, and many more.

Tijare has shaped the TechOps from legacy tech to the most cutting edge systems, bridging efficiently between creative, operations, and business verticals for the network. Not satisfied with leading the most ambitious digital transformation in the broadcast industry, he has helped drive real innovation in end-customer experience and unlocking the monetization value of content. Tijare believes that tech leaders need to stay ahead of the curve and always need to find out where tech is heading. He also believes that tech leaders are business leaders and need to wear a business hat, with a feedback loop from content performance optimization and business monetization. Tijare strongly believes a strong team of intrapreneurs with a ‘Day One’ attitude is the most important part of a good tech transformation.