ABP group honcho Aveek Sarkar will be chairman of the restructured Media Content and Communications Services (MCCS) India, the holding company for the STAR News venture in India. MCCS will have an eight-member board. The other members include Sarkar###SQ###s brother Aroop Sarkar, ABP CEO A Lahiri, STAR India CEO Peter Mukerjea, STAR India CFO G Subramaniam, former diplomat Naresh Chandra and senior journalist and former editor of The Statesman and The Indian Express S Nihal Singh, and another yet-to-be nominated member. Industry observers feel the last three members are likely to be ABP nominees considering the board representation would have to be in the ratio of 6:2, according to the new shareholding pattern.

MCCS filed its application for Government approvals on September 22 once again after the announcement of the proposed restructuring. The application reportedly indicated there would be no FII, NRI or overseas corporate body (OCB) investments in MCCS at the moment.

As things stand now, Ravina Raj Kohli will continue as chief executive, while Sanjay Pugalia will be chief editor of the channel.