News Broadcasting
Unilever marketing chief Simon Clift to join BBC Worldwide board
MUMBAI: UK pubcaster the BBC’s commercial arm BBC WOrldwide has announced that Simon Clift, Unilever’s global chief marketing officer has joined its board as a non-executive director.
His appointment is a further step in BBC Worldwide’s move to ensure both greater transparency in its governance and an even broader range of expertise at senior level.
BBC Worldwide CEO John Smith said: “Simon’s extensive experience in marketing and in building brands around the world will provide a great resource for BBC Worldwide to draw on as it moves ahead with its current growth strategy.
“During our strategic review in 2004/5 we identified a need to be more transparent in our governance and reporting in order to ensure clearer understanding of our remit and performance. The introduction of non-executive directors is one of the steps we have taken to achieve this.
“In addition, these directors – Etienne de Villiers, our non executive Chairman, Jana Bennett (Director of Television, BBC), Nicholas Eldred (General Counsel, BBC), Zarin Patel (Director of Finance, BBC) – and now Simon, will make rich contributions to the development of our international expansion plans.”
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.
