MUMBAI: The factual entertainment genre in India is witnessing several changes -- revamps, channel launches and senior level movements. After hiring former Discovery Networks programming head Arun Thapar as its EVP and head of content, Network18 has appointed Karishma Dhawan as the cluster head of History TV18, FYI TV18 and international business.

In her second stint with the network, she will handle ad-sales, client servicing and sales management of the entire network.

Dhawan will report to the group’s recently appointed executive vice president of English news cluster and network sales head for north and south Priyanka Datta as well as VP of head sales for Forbes India and international business for English news channels of the network, Preeti Sahni. The two executives report to TV18 president for revenue and Forbes CEO Joy Chakraborthy.

With more than 13 years of experience of generating revenue beyond the regular vanilla advertising, she has handled brands such as HT City, Indian Express, Radio City, Trav Talk and CNN IBN, etc. She has also handled concept sales on profit and generated revenue through organising events, media partnerships and AFPs, and integrations.

Prior to taking this role, she was with NewsX as the sales head since March 2016. She handled the national responsibility for all the regional sales team (revenue, sales grooming, hiring etc.)

She was hired as the assistant VP and regional head of HistoryTV18 in April 2013. In her tenure of around three years with the group, Dhawan was responsible for revenue generation as well as grooming and creating next level managers.