SATELLITE & CABLE: CNBC beefs up live coverage across Asian financial hubs

<p>CNBC Asia will air 20 hours more of live programming from the end </p><p>of this month, in response to a global demand for more business and </p><p>financial news from Asia. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Executives at CNBC Asia said the changes were made to strengthen its </p><p>positioning as a business and financial news channel, differentiate </p><p>itself from the other 'news' channels, and attract more viewers and </p><p>advertisers. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>"From our research and individual comments gathered from Europe, USA and </p><p>Asia, viewers want more coverage of the Asian markets," said Scott </p><p>Goodfellow, acting president for CNBC Asia. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>"People usually group CNBC, CNN, BBC and Channel NewsAsia together as </p><p>news channels, and compare us to (the other channels), but we do not </p><p>view ourselves as a news channel. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>"There are people who tune in not looking for any big news but to pick </p><p>up little things - news items that their business is associated with and </p><p>that can influence their business decisions. These people are a big </p><p>category," he explained. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>To tap in on this category of viewers, CNBC will deliver more live </p><p>reports from regional exchanges, in-depth analyses and live interviews, </p><p>increasing the hours of many of its benchmark programmes, such as </p><p>PowerLunch, Squawk Box and Market Watch, to a weekly total of 50 hours </p><p>in live coverage. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>A new programme called New Company - a showcase of how brick and mortar </p><p>companies adapt to the digital business environment - will also be </p><p>launched. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Chris Blackman, vice president of news programming, said CNBC Asia </p><p>intends to be "the most important channel bar none for those needing </p><p>business development news, and we make it available to them whenever </p><p>they need and want it." </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Over the past 12 months, CNBC has been trying to position itself as a </p><p>channel in its own category. Last year, the channel began focusing on </p><p>producing and airing local channels through joint-ventures in several </p><p>markets, with Nikkei-CNBC and CNBC India now reaching the most number of </p><p>viewers in the region, and CNBC Australia becoming increasingly </p><p>important as a source of locally-produced programmes for the rest of </p><p>Asia. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Mr Blackman said that it also wanted to inject more spontaneity and </p><p>excitement in programmes, but maintained that CNBC is not abandoning the </p><p>coverage of 'news' events. "For any news story that has a breaking </p><p>impact, we report how it relates to the impact on markets," he said, </p><p>adding that the message they want to convey to those demanding business </p><p>news is "this is real-time news as they break on air". A series of </p><p>30-second TVCs will air on CNBC and other channels - Discovery, AXN, MTV </p><p>and Hallmark - and print ads have started running in global and regional </p><p>business and financial magazines. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>According to Mark Froude, VP and director of international sales, the </p><p>network has seen major business growth in recent years; advertising </p><p>revenue is up 80 per cent and clients have doubled, while revenues have </p><p>tripled since the Asian monetary crisis. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Mr Froude said CNBC Asia would focus on financial and business clients </p><p>for the next 12 months, although "it is clear to us that the key aspect </p><p>in advertising development are new economy type clients". </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>CNBC Asia derives 80 per cent of its revenues from advertisers, which </p><p>include Nokia, Credit Suisse, Singapore Airlines and Allianze AG. </p><p><BR><BR> </p>