As part of on-going initiatives to enhance the value of Asian pay television as an advertising vehicle, the Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (Casbaa) has hired a highly experienced executive to make arguments in its favour to the regional advertising industry.

The new Casbaa director, Robert Wilson, whose appointment is immediate, has worked in the Asia Pacific for more than 20 years. His background includes almost a decade of pioneering work in cable and satellite television research and marketing at STAR TV and NBC Asia as well as a recent post at ACNielsen in media research sales and development. Before joining Star TV, Wilson worked for more than a decade with advertising agency Lintas: Worldwide, (now Lowe & Partners) in Australia, the United States, Malaysia and Hong Kong.

"We believe the appointment of Robert will give Casbaa and its member companies a new edge in building a competitive argument for the use of cable and satellite television as an advertising medium," said Simon Twiston Davies, CEO Casbaa.

A key objective will be to address and evaluate competing local and regional syndicated research services, and, where appropriate, recommend the services Casbaa members should adopt that would further the cause of maximizing advertising revenue for members. "With the help of this initiative we want to see our members improving their return on their considerable media research investments," said Twiston Davies.

Another objective is to foster the establishment of comprehensive and effective advertising expenditure measurement for cable and satellite channels and, where appropriate, to represent Casbaa member companies on television joint industry research committees.

Robert Wilson will be located in Singapore, reporting to CEO Simon Twiston Davies, adding valuable strength to Casbaa‘s presence in Southeast Asia .