News Broadcasting
Nickelodeon Asia announces executive promotions
MUMBAI: MTV Asia Network’s kid’s channel Nickelodeon Asia has announced three executive promotions with immediate effect to help the companies rapid expansion in Asia.
Richard Cunningham has been promoted to managing director, Lucy Young to vice president, marketing and communications and Hitomi Nagakaki to account director, network development and marketing.
Cunningham, who previously worked with MTV Networks in the United States in the affiliate sales and marketing division, handling distribution for MTV, Nickelodeon, VH1 and Comedy Central in the western United States, will now be based at Nickelodeon’s Asia regional headquarters in Singapore.
Cunningham will oversee Nickelodeon’s operations in the Asia Pacific covering markets such Japan, India, Southeast Asia, Philippines and New Zealand. He will continue as senior V-P of MTV Networks Asia overseeing network development, licensing and merchandising for both, MTV and Nickelodeon, besides playing a vital role in overseeing both MTV and VH1 channels in Thailand, according to a company release.
As V-P marketing and communications, Lucy Young, who has successfully guided and developed Nick’s marcom activities and initiatives in Asia, will oversee consumer, trade and affiliate marketing as well as pro-social, brand and publicity initiatives in the region. Young will be reporting to Cunningham.
Nagakaki, who has been promoted to account director, network development and marketing has contributed significantly to Nickelodeon’s cable and satellite distribution growth in the past two years in Japan. According to the release, she has successfully guided the channel’s acquisition of important Japanese animation series and marketing campaigns to boost awareness for Nick in the Japanese market. An ex-employee of producers of Japanese animation feature film Rex Entertainment, Hitomi is currently based in Tokyo and will also be reporting to Cunningham.
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.
