(5 September 2005 5:00 pm)

NEW DELHI: Having spun a success story in India with National Geographic Channel (NGC), it's time for the organisation's MD Zubin Gandevia to move ahead to play larger role for NGC in Asia as its managing director.

Nikhil Mirchandani, who was heading the ad sales for NGC Network India will be appointed the MD of NGC Network India on 1 January, 2006. Mirchandani will be taking over from Gandevia who will move to Hong Kong.

Gandevia will take on the management responsibility for the National Geographic Channel and A1 Channel businesses across the territories of Hong Kong, Taiwan and South East Asia besides continuing to oversee the India and Middle East businesses.

He will continue to report to Ward Platt, Group MD Asia for National Geographic Channels International and Fox International Channels, who will be based in Tokyo from October of this year.

Speaking to Indiantelevision.com after the changes were made official today, Gandevia said, "It's quite gratifying to see the channel today from where we started in 1999 when there was no focus."

According to Gandevia, the Indian market presently contributes about 40 per cent to NGC's overall Asian revenue kitty.

Gandevia has been the MD of NGC India since 1 January, 2000. He also spearheaded the successful launch of The History Channel in India in 2003.

Talking about his priorities in the new assignment, Gandevia said that he would try to understand the cross cultural markets.

"Also, being in the regional headquarters, it would help in making the parent organisation understand the Indian market better on broader issues," he explained

Mirchandani has been responsible for building the ad sales team for National Geographic Channel and The History Channel and growing revenues by over 300 per cent over the past 12 months.

As NGC India MD, Mirchandani will be in charge of both National Geographic Channel and The History Channel for the Middle East, India and its neighbouring countries and will continue to head ad sales for all these regions.

Agreeing that Gandevia's would be a "tough act to follow" in India, Mirchandani said that the overall focus of NGC would remain the same in India, while continuing the effort to grow the channel shares.

"For the last six weeks, NGC has been the No 1 channel in the infotainment genre and the revenue has come in at the expense of a mix of other genre like movies, infotainment and to some extent even general entertainment," Mirchandani said.