Said Karimian, owner of the Farsi-language GEM TV, was killed in a double homicide in Istanbul on late Saturday, along with his Kuwaiti business partner.
Unknown assailants, reportedly wearing chadors, sprayed Karimian's car with bullets as he was driving in Maslak, a posh Istanbul district, with his partner identified only as M.M.
Karimian is a British citizen of Iranian origin and runs the satellite TV network, GEM TV, popular in the region.
In a statement on its Facebook page, GEM TV confirmed that Karimian had died but without making the circumstances of the death clear.
"With great sorrow and regret we announce the death of Said Karimian," it said, describing him as a "great man who, with a pure and kind spirit, spent his life with honesty and sincerity for dignity of Iran."
Kuwait's state-run KUNA news agency quoted the Kuwaiti consul general in Istanbul as saying that a Kuwaiti citizen was shot and killed in Istanbul late Saturday.
Turkish media outlets said assailants overtook Karimian's car, cutting it off with an SUV, and stopped it. The victim suffered a head wound when his car was sprayed with bullets.
The SUV was found burned down in another Istanbul district hours later, in an apparent attempt to get rid of any evidence.
Police have launched a criminal investigation to find the perpetrators.
Karimian's GEM TV thrived in recent years with rising interest in Turkish soap operas in the Middle East. He held the merchandising rights to popular Turkish shows that were broadcast in Farsi.
Just months ago, Tehran had expressed its displeasure with the satellite television network, saying that such channels tried to culturally infiltrate the population and Westernize their lifestyle.
The GEM TV group has been on a large expansion offensive, recently adding several new channels and recruiting Iranian artists and staff from inside and abroad.
Karimian had spoken to Turkish media in January 2016 while promoting a new TV series shot in the southern Turkish city of Antalya.
"Turkish TV shows are very popular in Iran and we hope to shoot more series with Turkish actors in the future," he had said, while promoting the series exclusively produced by GEM TV with an all-Turkish cast.
The motives for the murders are unclear for now but conspiracy theories have circulated due to Tehran's disdain for Karimian, who was sentenced to six years in prison in absentia last year by an Iranian court for "acting against national security" and "propaganda against the state."
Conservative Iranian media reports, meanwhile, said Karimian was linked in the past to the People's Mujahedeen of Iran (PMOI), an exiled opposition group which Tehran sees as a criminal network aiming to bring down the Iranian government.
The judiciary's Mizanonline agency said Karimian had gone to the PMOI's Ashraf base inside Iraq at the end of the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war.
The conservative Fars news agency alleged that Karimian had spent eight years at Ashraf before going to Switzerland in 1996.
