MUMBAI: After almost a decade at the Karachi-headquartered Geo TV Network run by Independent Media Corp, Tahseen Shaukat - an executive familiar to many Indian broadcast and film professionals -  has joined Ten Sports Pakistan as country head. He took up his new position on 14 April and his mandate is to strengthen the sports network's - which is part of India's Zee Entertainment Group - objectives in Pakistan.

His hire signals the Zee group's firm intentions to get its sports broadcasting act together in the country.   Ten Sports - unlike many other Indian channels - does have legal landing rights in Pakistan, according to the Pakistan Electronic Media Authority website. It has broadcast rights to international cricket of four cricket boards along with other premium sports properties such as UEFA and WWE.  In India Ten Sports operates a bouquet of channels which includes Ten Sports, Ten Crickt, Ten HD, Ten Golf and Ten Action.

Shaukat has a broad based experience in leading, setting up, managing opportunities and developing turnaround strategies on various media outlets. He started his career with E-Commerce Gateway as a strategic communications manager in 2002. He was there for a year before moving to Media Max - ARY Digital as manager marketing and then finally joined Geo TV Network, the television arm of Jang Group in 2004 as general manager - special projects.

His stint with Geo TV network lasted for almost a decade where he left as executive director having handled  portfolios of business development, licensing, acquisitions and digital for the group and was responsible for steering network growth through licensing and collaborative ventures. He was instrumental with the launch and growth of Geo’s flagship sports channel Geo Super and driving the growth of two GECs through premium Turkish, Indian and foreign content including the recently launched format Pakistan Idol.