Benish Irshad Joins Begin.Watch as COO

After over three years as chief operating officer of Brainchild, Benish Irshad has joined premium SVOD/TVOD OTT platform Begin.Watch in the same role. Her role at Brainchild will be filled by Shaukat Mahmud, the former COO of Spark at Blitz Advertising. As COO of Brainchild, Benish was instrumental in winning various new business pitches. She launched Publicis Media in Pakistan and has grown it into a power brand in the media investment management industry. In her new role as COO of Begin.Watch, she will be responsible for overseeing product development and licensee relationships. According to the annual State of Apps report by Data Darbar, in 2023, Pakistanis spent over $61 million on the app store and consumed an average 7.8GB worth of data per user. Per the latest report, the top streaming apps of 2023 were Tamasha at 11.7 million MAU, Netflix at 2.9 million MAU, Amazon Prime at 1.36 million MAU, MyCo at 1.33 million MAU, and Tapmad at 830,000 MAU. The prime differentiator is original and legal content. As of Q1 2024, Begin.Watch has reportedly secured MENAPT region sports streaming deals with the Professional Golfers Association, Saudi Premier League, All Elite Wrestling. Representatives from the SVOD/TVOD OTT platform are in talks with the Grand Slam tournaments, F1, soccer, and volleyball leagues for legal and licensed streaming deals. On the entertainment side, Warner Brothers Discovery, Sony Pictures, and NBC Universal are reportedly on board as well. The content will become available once the mobile app is live. A subsidiary of MHL, Begin.Watch is quietly acquiring content across sports and entertainment for its launch across Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal. Backed by venture accelerator Z2C Limited, MHL is a technology company building the rails for a transparent media supply chain. Begin.Watch represents the first business to consumer (B2C) venture directly backed by Z2C Limited, with both Pakistan Super League (PSL) and Coke Studio being indirectly backed through specialist advertising agencies.