Zee News is slated to rope in Deepak Shourie from The Hindustan Times as chief executive officer. Other channels such as Zee TV, Zee Movies and Music Asia and the group's other outfits such as Siti Cable and Zee Sports are also expected to get new CEOs.

Sources said the new appointments, which are being personally made by Zee Telefilms managing director Vijay G Jindal, are likely to be completed over the next six months.

Sources said the purpose is to decentralise the entire organisation and make different media ventures separate profit-centres. Earlier, Zee's entire media business was consolidated under Jindal. Jindal was on Monday named a co-promoter in Zee's new media businesses.

Sources said the new CEOs would be responsible for the day-to-dayoperations of their outfits. Zee is also looking into certain other key appointments such as vice-president (corporate affairs) and vice-president (finance). They added that the newly-appointed Zee News vice-president Rajiv Tiwari may be shifted to Zee's marketing division.

Sources said the restructuring reflects a functional unbundling within Zee as an organisation. Before Jindal took over as the CEO of Zee's media business, the responsibility for separate channels as well as ventures rested with vice-presidents.

On the broadcasting side, Zee Telefilms is going full-steam ahead with its maiden broadcasting venture in the country. In the first phase, the company is setting up an earth station to launch four regional language channels - Punjabi, Gujarati, Marathi and Begali - at Noida at an estimated investment of Rs 25 crore.

Further, Zee is also implementing its direct-to-operator project at an estimated cost of Rs 157 crore. For this purpose, the company has already received an approval from ICICI fora term loan of Rs 70 crore. The rest of the project cost is to be raised from the internal accrual.

Zee Sports is the latest media venture that Zee has undertaken. Recently, the company organised a tournament in which veterans like Kapil Dev took part.