MUMBAI: After six years at the helm, Malayalam language network Asianet's COO Mohan Nair is moving on. Nair, who put in his papers last week, is joining Sri Lanka's Maharaja Television Channel Pvt Ltd (MTVC) as chief executive from 3 October.

At MTVC, Nair will have overall charge of the three entertainment channels that constitute the network. MTVC runs three terrestrial television channels -- MTV, Sirasa and Shakthi -- in Sri Lanka. While Sirasa is a Sinhalese channel, Shakthi targets the Tamil segment.

Confirming the development to indiantelevision.com, Nair said, "I have achieved what I set out to do in Asianet. I now look forward to the fresh challenges that heading a terrestrial network in Sri Lanka offers me." It was on Nair's watch that Asianet went from being a single channel network to a three channel one.

Before moving to Asianet as COO in mid-1999, Nair was senior editor and chief of bureau of leading pink paper The Economic Times.