MUMBAI: The Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (Casbaa) has announced its strategic direction for 2007, as well as the results of 2006 Annual general meeting elections to the Casbaa council of governors and board of directors.

According to Casbaa chairman Marcel Fenez, in 2007 the association is to focus on the increasing impact of Mobile technology, also noting a clear signal from the council of governors to step up initiatives in India and China. Casbaa will continue to engage the regulatory authorities in multiple markets and promote industry development in Indonesia, Vietnam and Pakistan, among others.

In addition, Casbaa will strive to demonstrate the effectiveness of pay TV as an advertising medium and thus challenge other traditional media for advertising revenues, asserts an official release.

Fenez said, "On an almost daily basis Casbaa is engaging with decision-makers across the region regarding regulatory and intellectual property rights issues while maintaining a steady output of studies on markets and the benefits of effective regulation and the cost of pay-TV piracy."

Casbaa also announced that the following were newly elected to the Casbaa council of governors, the association’s leading advisory body, Anytime president and COO Craig Zimbulis; Mabuhay Satellite president and CEO Garie Pimentel; MIH Asia president Ian Barnard; SkyVision Corporation (Sky Cable) head of programmes acquisition Juno Henares Chuidian; AGB Nielsen Media Research CEO Malcolm Spry and Standard Chartered Bank head of creative media and tech industries client relations Susan Ho.

The results of Elections to the Casbaa board of directors were as follows: HBO Asia CEO Jonathan Spink; AsiaSat CEO Peter Jackson; United Broadcasting Corporation EVP-chairman Sompan Charumilinda; BBC World regional director distribution and business development Nic van Zwanenberg and Celestial Pictures CEO William Pfeiffer