How is CNBC performing above its competitors as a business amidst a very competitive broadcast news environment?
KC: Today, the media landscape is extremely competitive – everyone’s a publisher now. We have never been about quantity, we have focused on quality. Over the last 27 years, we’ve built a community of regular consumers who are passionate about our content and the CNBC brand itself.
By focusing on what we do best our audience continues to grow, both on TV and online. Why do we think that is? We truly believe people are looking for actionable business content that can help them make decisions in their day to day lives.
By delivering quality TV news and expanding our digital platforms we’re continuing our reach within the C-suite but also attracting a younger, aspirational audience that are coming to us to help them get ahead in their careers.
Tell us about CNBC’s initiative to accelerate digital growth and innovation. Why is this important and what does it entail?
KC: In 2016, CNBC International’s traffic was up 12 percent year-on year; unique visitors here in Asia were up 10 percent year-on-year and EMEA visitors were up 15 percent year-on year. When we look at the content people are consuming with us – they love our written news, but in 2016 digital video boomed. International video starts were up 28 percent year on- year last year.
We want our content to be best in class. We also want to broaden the type of content we’re creating. CNBC always has and always will be about the markets, but we want to deepen and broaden our coverage to geopolitics, tech, travel and lifestyle. In the US, we recently launched a website called “CNBC Make It”, which centers on aspirational content on topics such as leadership, entrepreneurship and personal finance. It’s really resonating with our domestic audience and we want replicate its success internationally.
A key part of this content drive will also be ensuring it’s optimised for mobile. In 2016, 38 percent of our uniques came from people accessing CNBC from their mobile. We recently promoted Michael Kearns who joined CNBC in 2010 as head of news and programming in Asia, to lead on these digital efforts.
CNBC’s financial results for last year in general, were strong despite difficult economic conditions in most of your territories. What were your strategies to sustain and emerge?
KC: 2016 saw us totally reposition our commercial proposition and re-launch our international commercial team as in-house agency, Catalyst. Catalyst was designed to firmly reassert the network’s commercial position in the global advertising marketplace.
We’ve spent a lot of time in the last six months on the road and this new agency offer is really resonating with clients. 2017 is looking strong for us and I’m bullish about what we can achieve commercially.
How do you envision better exploiting CNBC brand?
KC: We launched a research recently that clearly showed how respected we are for our integrity and heritage. Loyal audiences love our product and use the output to ‘get ahead’.
We’re going to be raising the bar this year and making a big push on our visibility and positioning. Expect to see a lot more from CNBC Catalyst and a new, fresh brand campaign later this quarter. We’re also planning our biggest ever Asia Business Leaders Awards in November.
Share with us your emerging markets strategy for the Asia- Pacific region.
KC: As well as digital transformation, emerging markets are key to our growth. CNBC has a number of important affiliate partnerships that enable our brand of journalism to reach several large geographical blocks in local language and/or with more localised content. We also partner with strong local publishers to share our content and publish locally.
In May 2017, we’re launching our first CNBC programming in Thailand via a partnership with JKN Global. Later this year, we will also launch CNBC Indonesia which will see us break into one of the world’s top 10 markets by GDP. This will be for the digital platform first before we move to TV.
