News Broadcasting
TV18 marketing head Neel Chowdhury quits; to join Obopay as VP, CMO
MUMBAI: Neel Chowdhury, CNBC TV18 and CNBC Awaaz VP marketing, has ended his two-year stint with the company to join US-based mobile payment service company Obopay as vice-president and chief marketing officer.
Confirming the development to Indiantelevision.com, Chowdhury said, “Yes I have joined the new start-up Obopay today as VP and CMO.”
Based out of Mumbai, Chowdhury will spearhead the company’s expansion plans in India.
Before joining TV18 in March 2008, Chowdhury was CMO at Times Global Broadcasting (TGBCL). Prior to TGBCL, he was Bharti Mumbai head -marketing. He has also worked with Tata Teleservices and Pepsico International as COO – West Bengal and channel development manager respectively.
Obopay has several strategic investing partners like Qualcomm, Citi, Redpoint Ventures, Richmond Management, and Essar.
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.
