News Broadcasting
Neil Chugani is BBC Worldwide CFO
MUMBAI: Former BSkyB director of corporate finance and Goldman Sachs banker Neil Chugani joins BBC Worldwide as its chief financial officer, succeeding David King who has been appointed MD, Acquisitions. Neil will join BBC Worldwide in December 2007.
He will lead the financial team at BBC Worldwide, which in 2006/07 posted profits of £111.1 million from revenues of £810.4m – a three-fold increase in profits in just three years. He will be responsible for leading and developing all aspects of BBC Worldwide’s financial strategy, in particular the development of the five year growth plan.
BBC Worldwide CEO John Smith says, “I am delighted that Neil is joining the Board at BBC Worldwide. He brings tremendous financial, strategic and negotiating expertise to our team and joins us at a really exciting time of our international development.”
Chugani adds, “This is a fantastic opportunity. BBC Worldwide is a dynamic and fast growing business with operations and partnerships around the world. The recent acquisition of Lonely Planet demonstrates the ambitions of BBC Worldwide and I am looking forward to playing a major part in the business achieving its strategic and financial goals.”
News Broadcasting
Book Cricket gets a digital century on News18 amid T20 fever
Nostalgic classroom game revamped in English, Hindi plus Telugu on web and app.
MUMBAI: When the T20 World Cup fever hits fever pitch, News18 decides to flip the script straight back to the classroom. The digital news platform has revived the timeless schoolyard favourite Book Cricket as an interactive online game, perfectly timed to ride the cricket wave gripping fans across the globe. The reimagined Book Cricket ditches textbooks for smartphones, blending old-school nostalgia with modern gameplay. Once a sneaky recess pastime played by flicking book pages to score runs, the digital version now offers seamless fun for anyone craving a quick cricket fix between overs.
Available in English, Hindi and Telugu (with more languages planned across News18’s network), the game sits within the platform’s fast-growing gaming portfolio of over 20 titles, all built in-house. It joins event-driven hits like ‘Kursi Catcher’ and ‘Result Rewind’ during the 2025 Bihar Assembly Elections, plus festive specials such as ‘Durga’s Astras’ for Durga Puja and ‘Mouse Modak’ for Ganesh Chaturthi.
News18 Digital CEO Mitul Sangani said, “Gaming is a key pillar of our engagement strategy. At News18, we uniquely combine our newsroom agility with immersive gaming experiences. By blending credible content with interactive formats, we are creating meaningful engagement in an era defined by shrinking attention spans and evolving consumption habits.”
Select titles have expanded beyond News18.com to CNBC-TV18.com and Firstpost.com, reflecting the network’s push to deepen user interaction across platforms. The Book Cricket game is live now at https://www.news18.com/games/book-cricket/.
In a tournament where every boundary counts, News18’s digital Book Cricket proves the simplest games can still deliver the biggest smiles no syllabus required, just pure cricket joy one page-flip at a time.
