New UK indie, Zeal Television has appointed Barbara Lee as head of development. Lee's role at will be to develop and produce entertainment and lifestyle formats for broadcast in the UK.

Lee was previously a producer at Hat Trick Productions and Tiger Aspect Productions. Her credits include: 'Oblivious' for ITV, 'The Real Simpsons' for Sky 1, 'Something for the Weekend' for Channel 4 and 'Whatever You Want' for BBC One

Zeal managing director, Mark Linsey also announced the appointment of Ed Sharples as international executive producer for Zeal Television. Sharples is currently executive producer for Pepsi Chart International. He previously was international project director for GEM, a division of Endemol, before which he was deputy general manager of Channel [V] Music Networks SE Asia for News Corporations StarTelevision.

Sharples will oversee the production of Zeals' formats internationally, particularly through the company's production offices in the Middle East and India.

Launched in August 2001, with Mark Linsey, ex-head of entertainment at Tiger Aspect, as managing director, Zeal Television has secured a worldwide first-look deal with The Chatterbox Partnership for the exclusive use and distribution of their format catalogue.

Zeal is wholly-owned by Sportsworld, the UK-listed TV rights and sports marketing company. It currently produces The Pepsi Chart in more than 30 countries around the world, is joint-owner of the Popstars format and has 'Search for a Supermodel' optioned and in production in 11 countries around the world.

New formats include Fantasy Fans, currently being made by Zeal for TVNZ in New Zealand and 'Under Construction', a Chatterbox-format commissioned by Channel 10 in Australia.