Singapore – Giant ice sculptures of stock-exchanges’ opening numbers were created at Singapore’s Central Business District to coincide with the opening time of those exchanges, in a stunt to promote business news brand Bloomberg Television. Managing director for Bloomberg Television’s commercial affairs in the Asia-Pacific region, Shawn Galey, said the event was the start of a major push for audience share in Singapore. “We want Bloomberg TV to have the same brand awareness in Singapore as it already does in Hong Kong,” he said. “PAX data alone shows the strength of the Bloomberg Television brand in Hong Kong, and the data’s even stronger if you include our branded block on TVB Pearl. We want to replicate that in Singapore.” Asked about the perception that Bloomberg, which makes the bulk of revenues from its terminals business, has used the TV channel primarily for branding, Galey said that the ongoing evolution and improvement of the channel is testament to the company’s increased commitment to TV. “Mid-2008, the company took the decision to get serious about TV. Since then we’ve invested significantly in the move from NTSC to PAL and just this week are embarking on encryption of the channel. We are building out a promo suite in Singapore for Q4 2009, and we are ramping up our marketing efforts – of which this event is just the beginning.” Last week, Bloomberg and UTV announced that they will collaborate on a television channel to deliver real-time business, economic and political news to households across India. In the next month, the business news channel UTVi will be re-branded as Bloomberg-UTV.