News Broadcasting
CNN International head Chris Cramer announces retirement
MUMBAI: Chris Cramer, who has headed CNN International’s operations for the last 11 years, is retiring effective 31 March.
“I shall be saying farewell over the next few months in Atlanta, London and Hong Kong and hope we can raise a glass somewhere along the way,” the CNNI managing director said Wednesday in an e-mail to staffers across the globe.
“In April I will have been at the helm of CNN International for 11 years — and I believe it’s time to retire from the company and look for the next challenge.
“2006 was a record year for the international services, record distribution for CNNI and CNN en Espanol, and record revenues for all of our overseas businesses, including CNNI.com. Each unit is now profitable. It was also a fabulous year for our global journalism with accolades and awards for staff and services alike. Thankfully we also managed to keep our folks safe wherever they were working and led the industry in safety and training for all those who work in the field.”
Cramer joined CNN in 1996 from BBC, where he had worked for 25 years, five of them as head of newsgathering.
CNN is still to name Cramer’s successor.
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.
