Asia's rich and powerful are consuming at least as many pan-regional newspapers and television as they were a year ago, despite having greater access to the internet both at and outside the office.
The latest results from the Synovate PAX (Pan Asia Pacific Cross Media) survey show that many of the international channels and publications improved their reach in 2004, at the same time as penetration of internet-ready mobile phones has shot up, and as more of those surveyed go online.
The latest results from the Synovate PAX (Pan Asia Pacific Cross Media) survey show that many of the international channels and publications improved their reach in 2004, at the same time as penetration of internet-ready mobile phones has shot up, and as more of those surveyed go online.
"More (media reach figures) are up than down, and that's an encouraging sign," says Synovate media director Steve Garton. The full-year figures from 2004 are the latest available.
Discovery Channel remains the favourite channel in the survey and grew its region-wide weekly reach from 21.3 per cent to 21.5 per cent in 2004. Discovery Travel and Adventure, meanwhile, saw its reach triple, from 2.1 per cent to 6.3 per cent. Rival National Geographic Channel was watched by 15.3 per cent of those surveyed in 2004 (15.4 per cent in 2003).
CNN was still well ahead among top management and continues to lead the news channels despite slight declines in viewership, watched by 18.7 per cent of top management and 15.4 per cent of the total sample. BBC World also lost reach across the entire sample (8.7 per cent to 8.2 per cent), but made gains (9.5 per cent to 10.5 per cent) among top management. This was despite 2004 being a 'slow' news year compared 2003, when the war in Iraq and Sars were filling news bulletins. The Indian Ocean tsunami disaster came at the end of last year, but rolling quarterly PAX figures show there was a dip in viewing in the year to December, compared to the 12 months to the end of September.
CNBC's reach declined from 9.4 per cent to 8.9 per cent among top managements during 2004, while Bloomberg TV closed the gap a little, up from two to 2.6 per cent.
The music channels, meanwhile, bucked the positive trend among entertainment channels, however, posting declines in reach. MTV's past-seven-day reach slipped from 12.8 per cent to 12.3 per cent of all those surveyed, and from 8.9 per cent to eight per cent among top management. Channel V and Channel V International, meanwhile, were watched by five per cent (down from 5.4 per cent) and only 3.8 per cent of top management (down from 5.7 per cent).
In print, all three major daily titles showed growth in popularity. The Financial Times, with its new Asian edition, saw past-seven-days readership go from 0.5 to 1.4 per cent and from 2.2 to 3.3 per cent among top management. The Asian Wall Street Journal also gained, with readership of 1.2 per cent across the survey, and from 1.9 per cent to 2.9 per cent among top management. The International Herald Tribune saw reach rise to 0.8 per cent among all respondents.
Among the newsweeklies, Time continued to strengthen its lead on Newsweek in 2004, but both lost reach among top management, along with all other pan-regional titles, bar the dailies.
The Economist, Forbes and Fortune all made slight gains in readership across the whole sample, while CFO Asia held fairly steady.
The best news for advertisers, however, is that affluent consumers are splashing out on technology, cars and luxury goods, and intend to keep spending in the year ahead. They're also travelling more, both on business and on holiday. The number taking three or more business trips a year rose from 5.9 per cent to seven per cent and 28 per cent took a holiday in 2004, compared to 25 per cent the previous year.
While slightly fewer of these elite consumers are investing in financial products such as property and unit trusts, they are buying gadgets. Ownership of desktop computers has hit 64 per cent, while 29 per cent have a laptop or notebook and 13 per cent have a palm-sized PDA.
Phones with internet access are gaining popularity -- penetration is now 41 per cent -- and 31 per cent of those surveyed have an MP3 player.
Almost 21 per cent plan to buy a new car this year, while seven per cent are shopping for a designer watch with a price tag over US$500, 11 per cent have their eyes on luxury leather goods or accessories, and 10 per cent plan to buy a digital stills camera. The PAX readership and ownership surveys cover Seoul, Taipei, Hong Kong, India, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Bangkok and Sydney. In Tokyo, only TV i s measured.