BBC World World News Today: focused at South Asia, telecast Monday to Friday at 21.30 IST presented by the internationally acclaimed news personality and the BBC’s main presenter – Nik Gowing. Explains Dezma de Melo, BBC World’s head of research, India, BBC World, “In January 2008, BBC World conducted an online survey among viewers of BBC World and found that two out of five viewers watch this programme regularly. Three out of five strongly feel that this bulletin takes a comprehensive and in-depth look at world news and satisfies their needs for a daily dose of news from around the world. The same number also strongly agree that this programme presents news from South Asia with an international perspective. “India is a highly competitive and growing news market with more than 30 news channels and more expected to launch this year. In July 2007 BBC World launched a special bulletin of World News Today focusing on South Asia. The idea was to provide those in South Asia with the latest international headlines with impartial analysis, insights and global perspectives on news stories that are relevant to them.” ————————————————————————————————- CNBC Asia Pacific “CNBC Asia Pacific launched its morning programming schedule last year, and since then have steadily and consistently recorded an increase in viewership. The latest PAX Past 30 day viewership data recorded a 3% YOY increase amongst affluent audience members, which is the most increase recorded by a news broadcaster in the region. The two shows produced by CNBC Asia Pacific that have recorded the most increase of viewership are: Squawk Box, which recorded an increase in viewership by 35% since this time last year; CNBC’s Cash Flow has recorded an increase in viewership by 52% since this time last year. (TNS People Meter Data, Singapore). “(The shows’ successes) were very much a concerted strategy. When CNBC Asia Pacific re-launched the programming, it was our intention that they would be relevant and pertinent to the viewers at the right time. Recognizing the shifts in the way markets and businesses were working, and identifying the breakdown of the kinds of viewers watching at different times, the new strategy was developed with the aim of serving them better. For example, Squawk Box is shown when the major Stock Markets open across the region. CNBC deploys the strongest reporting talent for this show, and built a new studio in the newsroom to bring the stories to life. CNBC’s Cash Flow is shown when the trading session is up and running and attention shifts to the investment community. The news flow is out there, and it is the program’s mandate to turn news flow into cash flow, making this show relevant to the trading community.” ————————————————————————————————- CNN Asia Pacific Talk Asia, produced out of CNN’s Asia Pacific HQ in Hong Kong, is a key show that continues to resonate with audiences across the region and beyond. (Success has been measured) in a number of ways – viewer feedback including questions submitted online, SMS responses (eg the appearance of Imelda Marcos bought more than 4,000 SMS votes) and how the program itself regularly features in the headlines. All those who appear on the program are newsmakers, from leaders including former Thai PM Thaksin Shinawatra, and President Jose Ramos Horta; entertainment stars like Abishek Bachchan, Ang Lee, or Kanye West; sport stars Tiger Woods, or Roger Federer. Talk Asia also recently shot in front of a live audience as Asian superstar Jet Li sat down with host Anjali Rao – with more live guests to come. The strategy is pretty simple, namely to continue to secure the top name newsmaking guests from around Asia Pacific and beyond. ————————————————————————————————- AETN All Asia Networks Michele Schofield, director of content – programming, acquisitions & production for AETN All Asia Networks, says, “We are pleased to have seen a strong audience response to our series, Engineering an Empire, The Universe, and most recently, Dogfights, on The History Channel. They are great examples of content which has wide appeal on our channel. On the Crime & Investigation Network, we’re seeing our audience gravitate towards the stories of crime solving, such as Cold Case Files, as well as the biographical and psychological profiling of notorious killers such as Aileen Wurnous and Ted Bundy. We have seen this viewer feedback in both the quantitative measure of audience ratings, as well as qualitative focus groups from Malaysia and Singapore. “The History Channel launched consumer marketing campaigns for these key properties on trams, train stations, outdoor LCD displays, buses and bus shelters etc, as well as doing targeted marketing efforts with consumer preview screenings, subscriber giveaways, Army Barracks advertising, and on-the-ground activities such as a Dogfights themed booth at Singapore’s Airshow. Complemented with a heavy on-air promotional campaign, we were pleased to see the viewer response to these programs.” ————————————————————————————————- Asian Food Channel “Facing the many difficulties associated with meeting the needs of a diverse regional audience, Asian Food Channel continues to have success by windowing Asian titles that appeal to the specific tastes of its different markets. For example, programs such as Dish … with Vivien and Sedap have been readily gaining traction in Malaysia – one of AFC’s newer markets, while Party Guide for an Urbanite remains very popular in Singapore,” explains Maria Brown, managing director, programming and acquisitions. “As a relative newcomer in the pan Asian cable and satellite landscape, AFC’s goal is to establish signature personalities and programs that cater to a mirage of viewer tastes and interests. Our newly transformed website has seen a 300% increase in traffic over the past 6 months – a key indicator that AFC is gaining traction throughout the region as viewers become more involved with the brand seeking information on AFC’s top programs and personalities. “One of AFC’s key strategies is to air content made in the region, for the region. While acquired Western content continues to do well and features some of the biggest names in the culinary business – Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver to name but two – it is the Asian voices and faces that have always been at the heart of AFC’s content, and it is this content that is making the difference to much of our audience. We have capitalized on this by working to gather, and now create a broader a range of programming as possible for the region to satisfy all tastes and educate and entertain our audience on the local delights and talent we have in Asia.” ————————————————————————————————- Discovery Channel “On Discovery Channel the runaway hits across all markets have been Deadliest Catch, FutureWeapons and Mythbusters. American Chopper and Dirty Jobs are strong performers in Australia. Everest – Beyond the Limit did really well in Taiwan. For Travel and Living, Miami Ink, Bizarre Foods, Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations are the main ratings drivers everywhere in the Asia Pacific region. In Taiwan our local commission Fun Taiwan has been consistent. On Animal Planet the successful ones are Meerkat Manor, Nick Baker’s Weird Creatures, Crime Scene Wild,” says Vikram Channa, vice president content, Discovery Networks Asia. “These programmes rated well above our PrimeTime average across all key markets. There is also strong viewer feedback.” “It is always our goal to find new and entertaining ways of invigorating the factual space. All the examples highlighted above set the agenda by redefining existing genres. Be it Science, Reality or Culture and Travel. Before ‘Mythbusters, science formats were very traditional. The concern was is Mythbusters too ‘lightweight’ for our audience? But we took the risk, which paid off handsomely. We have had 6 seasons thus far with countless topical specials. It has inspired other new series on the channel that continue to fuel the pop science genre like Smash Lab. On Travel and Living the biggest surprise was Miami Ink. It’s unconventional. We knew it would perform in Australia. But despite its take on alternative culture, it has done well even in our conservative Asian markets like Malaysia and Singapore. The success of the series has led to more tattoo shows like LA Ink and London Ink.” ————————————————————————————————- National Geographic Channel Asia Says David Gunson, senior vice president, programming and broadcasting, National Geographic Channel Asia, “Our Air Crash Investigation series continues to perform very well in the Asia region. There’s an inbuilt curiosity with viewers as they want to understand the science behind air travel and the technology behind those muliti million dollar machines in the sky. We have a massive spike in ratings, every time we launch a new series; the viewers of Asia clearly like this programme and they look forward to new episodes. “When you have a great series and you’re in a 100+ channel environment, you want to make it easy for people to find. We have consistently kept Air Crash Investigation in the same Tuesday, 9pm slot for many years. We keep a close tab on global trends, what viewers are watching and not watching. Through our research, we found that viewers enjoy investigations, disasters and human stories. Air Crash Investigations just resonated with our viewers because people are spending a lot of time travelling. There are so much to be learned from those human errors and how to avert future disasters.” ————————————————————————————————- Cartoon Network “Ben 10 has consistently ranked within Cartoon Network’s top shows and dominates in its corresponding time band across markets – Australia, Philippines, Taiwan, India, Malaysia, Korea and Singapore. Ben 10 has been watched by more than 61 million viewers since its debut in the region last year,” enthuses Mark Eyers, executive director, programming, Turner Entertainment Networks Asia, Inc. “In Australia, Ben 10 immediately shot to the top of both time slots after it was launched in April 2007, achieving the highest rating for the channel for the year. More recent data show that Ben 10 was the highest rating program on the channel in both December 2007 and January 2008, and that (it) dominated Cartoon Network’s Top 25 episodes in January 2008. In India, Ben 10 currently has the highest shares (7%) and television rating point (1) among all National channels in the Wed-Fri 18:00-18:29 timeslot in the CS 4-14 All India Audiences (source: TAM PeopleMeter). Continues Eyers, “The success of a show such as Ben 10 can be attributed to the show’s appeal boosted by an integrated, multi-platform strategy by Cartoon Network in each market that it has been launched. For example, in Australia, aside from on-air promotions, on www.cartoonnetwork.com.au we had sneak preview Video-on-Demand available along with a Ben 10 mini-site and Ben 10 games before the series launched. Ads in cable guides helped to promote the launch of the series along with e-newsletters and other marketing initiatives. A green-carpet premiere was organized for lucky Cartoon Network viewers in India. The second series in Taiwan benefited from some local flavor with a Taiwan singing group performing the opening song of the show and a timed premiere during a big national holiday. To broaden the appeal of the program beyond television, the channel’s licensing arm Cartoon Network Enterprises launched Ben 10 toys soon after their on-air debut in several markets.” ————————————————————————————————- Disney Channel According to Laura E Wendt, vice president and managing director, Walt Disney Television International (Southeast Asia), the Disney Channel Original Franchise, which for TV includes High School Musical and High School Musical 2, strongly performed across markets in Southeast Asia. “The movies enjoyed stellar ratings – with High School Musical 2 dominating the kids demographic as the highest rated telecast among pay-TV kids at premiere in the metered markets of Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines. Besides the TV ratings performance, there are the 15million CD soundtracks and 15million DVDs of High School Musical and High School Musical 2 that have been sold worldwide. In Asia, the soundtrack has achieved platinum status in Singapore and Philippines and gold in Malaysia and Indonesia. “To increase the local connection to the High School Musical Franchise, we’ve staged My School Rocks, an interschool dance competition in Malaysia and Singapore with thousands of kids participating and supporting their school’s entry. In Malaysia alone where auditions took place in four cities, the My School Rocks online voting site had over 180,000 hits. The success of the franchise continues with an upcoming High School Musical: The Ice Tour and the theatrical release of High School Musical 3: Senior Year both taking place later this year. The success of the franchise was and continues to be the result of a strong collaboration among The Walt Disney Company’s lines of business across the globe.” ————————————————————————————————- Animax & AXN Girl From Hell (aka Jigoku Shoujo) was number one, according to Peoplemeter ratings, amongst Animax’s core target audience of youths aged 15 – 24 in Philippines, Taiwan and Hong Kong when compared to other international channels. Viewers were invited to post their own grudges on the dedicated microsite, which was only accessible from 11:34pm – 2am each day. Entrants could win straw doll mobile phone straps. This contest ran in Asia, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Over 20,000 grudges were received; total page views for all three sites was 1million; with 208,500 total visits for all three sites. The show was rated as one of the Top five shows of 2007 by The Straits Times in Singapore and Animax bagged the most awards for one particular campaign, winning five Promax/BDA International 2007 Awards for Girl from Hell. While the inaugural series of The Amazing Race Asia (TARA) garnered an impressive viewership of over 14million viewers, the second season saw the viewership figures leap to over 18million across the Asia region. The second season also saw an increase of 44% amongst PMEB viewers. “TARA2 also ruled TV screens in AXN’s key markets of Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines – the series was the most-watched program during its timeslot among all international cable channels with PMEB viewers. The finale broadcast hit record high ratings of the season in Singapore and in Malaysia – the show also out-performed terrestrial channels. AXN’s Amazing Race Asia dedicated online buzz site saw a significant increase in the number of visitors, recording over 17million page views since October 2007, more than double of TARA1. Our 360° strategy for The Amazing Race Asia was a multi-platform marketing campaign that effectively increased the awareness of the show right from the first season. It also allowed TARA partners to leverage on their sponsorship, providing a win-win situation,” explains an AXN spokesperson. ————————————————————————————————- STAR Group On STAR World, Heroes and American Idol; on STAR PLUS Nach Baliye and on VIJAY Jodi No. 1. American Idol’s debut episode ranked as the #1 show for the day among all cable viewers in Singapore, where STAR World has been the #1 English Cable Channel in the 8pm time slot consecutively. American Idol has also performed well in the Philippines. Securing the straight off satellite rights ensures STAR World viewers get the first glimpse and this has been key to ensuring the program’s continued success on the channel. STAR World’s exclusive second-season premiere of Heroes on Tuesday January 22, also delivered fantastic ratings, proving the #1 English cable program in Singapore for the day among cable viewers aged 18+. Heroes was a smash hit for STAR World last year, and has come back very strong in its second season. Publicity from the Heroes World Tour last August in both Hong Kong and Singapore helped give the program a push into continued success for its second season. In its third season and first on flagship GE STAR Plus (moved from STAR One), Hindi-language celebrity dance show Nach Baliye averaged 13.2million viewers per episode throughout its 14-week run. Its four-hour conclusion on December 22, 2007, reached out to 24.8million viewers, making it the No.1 show for the week. The Tamil version of Nach Baliye, Jodi No.1 on the Tamil GE VIJAY concluded in December, 2007. The show reached out to more than 10million viewers in the state of Tamilnadu and averaged a channel share of 21% in its time band over the life of the show. In a pivotal elimination episode in week 40, the program clocked a 15.14 TVR, its highest ever in Tamilnadu. ————————————————————————————————- ESPN ESPN’s flagship studio show SportsCenter has five localized Asian editions (Asia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, India and Malaysia) available in English, Mandarin, and Cantonese and hosted by local faces. ESPN STAR Sports produces up to seven localized, original news bulletins every night and over 1,000 hours of original news each year. Sportscenter’s audience has doubled from 4 years ago, from 52million in 2003 to over 102million in 2007 and remains ahead of other sports news programming across measured markets such as India, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan. Localized editions of SportsCenter have also performed well. In Malaysia, the local edition gained traction quickly with 4.5million viewers since the show commenced in May 2007. Within the first month of its launch, Sportscenter Malaysia already reached out to more than 1.4 million Astro viewers, 20% of anyone subscribing to pay-TV in Malaysia. The Guinness 9-Ball Tour is Asia’s premier pool competition featuring the region’s best pool talents in a full-tournament setting with Asia’s elite cue masters. 43 top-class players from 12 countries played to passionate crowds across the region, namely Indonesia, Chinese Taipei, Malaysia, Singapore and China, including a Grand Final leg. ESPN STAR Sports dedicated more than 90 hours of live and exclusive coverage of the event across Asia over four months. The event was broadcast on all STAR Sports networks, last year drawing 56million Asian viewers; 8.6million in Southeast Asia – a combination of people-metered markets, namely Singapore, Malaysia, India & Taiwan; and projected audience in non-metered markets. The total audience in 2007 was 17% more than 2006, and also saw an increase of 48% of upscale males with cable. The Tour achieved an awareness level of 65% in Asia.