News Broadcasting
Casbaa takes on media & research director
As part of on-going initiatives to enhance the value of Asian pay television as an advertising vehicle, the Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (Casbaa) has hired a highly experienced executive to make arguments in its favour to the regional advertising industry.
The new Casbaa director, Robert Wilson, whose appointment is immediate, has worked in the Asia Pacific for more than 20 years. His background includes almost a decade of pioneering work in cable and satellite television research and marketing at STAR TV and NBC Asia as well as a recent post at ACNielsen in media research sales and development. Before joining Star TV, Wilson worked for more than a decade with advertising agency Lintas: Worldwide, (now Lowe & Partners) in Australia, the United States, Malaysia and Hong Kong.
“We believe the appointment of Robert will give Casbaa and its member companies a new edge in building a competitive argument for the use of cable and satellite television as an advertising medium,” said Simon Twiston Davies, CEO Casbaa.
A key objective will be to address and evaluate competing local and regional syndicated research services, and, where appropriate, recommend the services Casbaa members should adopt that would further the cause of maximizing advertising revenue for members. “With the help of this initiative we want to see our members improving their return on their considerable media research investments,” said Twiston Davies.
Another objective is to foster the establishment of comprehensive and effective advertising expenditure measurement for cable and satellite channels and, where appropriate, to represent Casbaa member companies on television joint industry research committees.
Robert Wilson will be located in Singapore, reporting to CEO Simon Twiston Davies, adding valuable strength to Casbaa’s presence in Southeast Asia .
News Broadcasting
News TV viewership jumps 33 per cent as West Asia war draws audiences
BARC Week 8 data shows news share rising to 8 per cent despite T20 World Cup
NEW DELHI:Â Even as individual television news channel ratings remain under a temporary pause, the genre itself is seeing a clear surge in audience attention.
According to the latest data from Broadcast Audience Research Council India, television news recorded a 33 per cent jump in genre share in Week 8 of 2026, covering February 28 to March 6.
The news genre accounted for 8 per cent of total television viewership during the week, up from 6 per cent the previous week. The spike in attention coincided with escalating geopolitical tensions involving the United States, Israel and Iran, which have kept global headlines firmly fixed on West Asia.
The rise is notable because it came at a time when cricket was dominating television screens. The high-stakes stages of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, including the Super 8 fixtures and semi-finals, were being broadcast during the same period.
Despite the cricket frenzy, viewers appeared to be toggling between sport and global affairs, boosting the overall share of news programming.
The surge in genre share comes even as the government has enforced a one-month pause on publishing ratings for individual news channels. The move followed regulatory scrutiny of the television ratings ecosystem.
While channel-level rankings remain temporarily out of sight, the genre-level data suggests that when global tensions escalate, audiences continue to turn to television news for real-time updates.
