MUMBAI: Yet another shift from Turner. The erstwhile Cartoon Network India executive director strategic marketing Nikhil Mirchandani has joined the NGC team as the Head - ad sales for both National Geographic Channel and The History Channel.

Mirchandani had put in his papers, at Turner, last month.

NGC India has identified ad sales as a key priority area for the year and has hence set up a dedicated ad sales division. Mirchandani's appointment is said to be an important part of this initiative.

Mirchandani's key role will be to build, drive and manage the ad sales efforts for The National Geographic Channel and The History Channel.

According to a company release, the setting up of the ad sales division is part of an overall strategy to ensure comprehensive leadership on all aspects in the category.
"National Geographic Channel and The History Channel are extremely successful channels that the Star Network is proud to have in its bouquet and the setting up of a dedicated ad sales team will only further drive this success," offered Star India CEO Peter Mukerjea, in the release, about the focus on ad sales.

"Star India will continue to build and grow this partnership not only across distribution but also on programming innovation to expand viewership across the Star Bouquet," he added.

"On speciality channels like NGC and THC it is imperative that the programming, marketing and sales efforts are completely integrated to offer great value to advertisers. The team will be focused and also have the benefit of Star's expertise in this area to optimise their performance" offered Star India COO Sameer Nair.

"Today our channels are pervasive across the country and it is a natural progression for us now to focus on our ad sales effort. To ensure that we reach the same levels of excellence in ad sales we wanted to bring in the best talent available. I am confident Nikhil will take these channels to even greater heights," said NGC Network MD Zubin Gandevia.

As for Mirchandani, he comes to NGC Network after about nine years of experience in the broadcasting industry where his focus has been on ad sales and strategic marketing.

During his stint at Turner, he was responsible for the marketing Cartoon Network and POGO. Prior to that, he had held dual positions of director - Turner advertising sales for north and east regions handling CNN, Cartoon Network and HBO, as well as the advertising sales channel manager for Cartoon Network.

Prior to joining Turner, Mirchandani had worked with Sony Entertainment Television India Ltd. (SET) in Mumbai and later in New Delhi for three years, as the zonal advertising sales manager. He has worked expansively on all SET channels, including Sony, Max, AXN and CNBC. During his tenure at SET, Nikhil was responsible for managing key accounts as well as initiating major CPRP (cost per rating point) deals for large advertisers. He was also involved in training and recruiting teams.