MUMBAI: Star Sports senior VP, brand solutions and sponsorships Basant Dhawan has been shifted to entertainment business by the group. He will be working as national agency head, which will contribute to the growth of the entertainment ad sales business.

His earlier role included product and revenue strategy and sales functions. He was responsible for creating pricing and revenue assets, product packages along with sales for all new sports leagues that Star has been associated with, including Pro Kabaddi League (PKL), football leagues and Premier Badminton League (PBL). 

Prior to Star India, Dhawan was the general manager-media in Vodafone India services. He has worked with auto, telecom, media and entertainment industries in his career.

With over 25 years of experience, Dhawan is a result oriented marketing and business professional. His expertise lies in direct sales, distribution, product management, brand marketing media planning and buying to name a few.

He started his career with Escotel as manager marketing and then moved to Airtel’s Landline business, Touchtel as corporate sales manager after 4 years. He has also worked with Reliance communication, Reliance Infocomm, Bharti Aitel and Aircel.

In 2018, Star India launched two channels expanding its sports cluster named Star Sports 3 and Star Sports 1 Telugu. Star Sports 1 Kannada is also being tested and will launch before New Year.

Under the new tariff order, Star Sports 1 Kannada (30 December) and Star Sports 1 Telugu (7 December) have been priced at Rs 19 for TV consumers.