Samay Shah named national sales head at Sun Neo

MUMBAI: Samay Shah has been handed the national sales head role at Sun Neo, and the appointment reads less like a surprise and more like the inevitable next line in a well-plotted career. Over the past year alone, Shah has taken charge of complex, cross-regional projects, aligned teams to unforgiving revenue targets and delivered results that made the promotion a formality rather than a gamble.

The climb has been steady rather than spectacular, which in ad sales is often the more telling kind. Shah cut his teeth as advertising sales manager at Zee Entertainment, working across an eighteen-channel portfolio between 2008 and 2011, before moving to Sony Pictures Networks in a similar role on Sony SAB. A five-year detour into entrepreneurship followed, with Shah founding and running Brand Venice, a girlswear manufacturing venture, between 2014 and 2019, a spell that likely sharpened the commercial instincts he later brought back to television.

Back in media from 2020, Shah served as regional head ad sales for west and south at ScreenMax Media, managing a seven-channel portfolio spanning Fakt Marathi, Gangaur, Goodtimes and Aamaar Cinema, alongside IPL sponsorships, movie branding and OOH deals. A stint as manager ad sales west at Enterr10 Television followed, where he ran 70 per cent of the region’s sales portfolio and handled marquee clients and agencies directly. Since April 2025, as national head ad sales at Sun Neo, he has led sales strategy for the HSM cluster nationally, consistently beating revenue targets.

None of this happens in isolation, and the tribute rightly extends to Raj Kiran Singh, whose mentorship is credited with shaping Shah’s trajectory. It is a reminder that in an industry built on relationships and revenue in equal measure, coaching often matters as much as capability. The promotion is being read across the sector as a validation of both, talent given room to grow, and leadership willing to nurture it.