SATELLITE & CABLE: CNBC local drive kicks off with Aussie launch

Regional broadcaster CNBC kicked off its localisation drive with the launch of a financial channel in Australia in late January, followed by Singapore and Hong Kong a few weeks later. The company capitalised on the explosion of online trading and stock investments in Australia to launch a localised service that has already pulled in advertisers such as Merrill Lynch HSBC, 3Comm and Commonwealth Bank. "Australia warrants a separate market (product) because culturally and geographically it is distinct from the rest of Asia. Increasingly, the Australian product will diverge from Asian products," said CNBC Asia vice-president of advertising sales, Mark Froude. "We've done some programming in the market, but are now committed to providing a financial channel designed for viewers in Australia and drive a product that viewers here will feel comfortable with." The channel offers real-time stock information provided by the Australian Stock Exchange through a stock ticker. "A lot of people are getting more and more stocks in their retirement portfolios, so stocks are very important to them even if they don't intend to sell," said CNBC Asia CEO Scott Goodfellow. "The ticker is a very powerful branding element (for us). Viewers are nearly addicted to it." Australia was seen as the "ideal place" for CNBC to kick off its localisation drive because of the explosion of online trading and e-trade, English is the spoken language and it is the first market to open each trading day in the region. Mr Miguel Bernas, CNBC Asia's general manager of marketing and communications, rated the potential as "extremely high" in Australia, where stock ownership is the highest in the world, and the number of discount trading and brokering firms has risen dramatically. Programming for the Australian channel includes the Singapore-produced Squawk Box and Market Watch, and new Australian programmes such as The Source, CEO Australia and Business Centre Australia. The channel is distributed by Foxtel, Austar and Optus Television. The broadcaster has poured in more than USdollars 1 million to open the Sydney bureau, according to Mr Goodfellow. The bureau is also expected to generate more Australian-produced programmes for viewers in other markets. It also includes a sales office to target advertisers for Australia and other regional markets. Mr Goodfellow, meanwhile, sought to differentiate CNBC from news channels such as CNN and BBC. "News channels do best only when big things happen. For a financial channel like CNBC, our viewers like every little thing that we do all the time, rather than waiting for something major to happen, and can be completely attracted to the overall product," he said. CNBC, however, sees Bloomberg as its main competitor. "We compete everywhere in Asia with Bloomberg, and I don't know one market where we don't win," said Mr Goodfellow. He added that CNBC had attempted to differentiate itself from the "PC-approach like Bloomberg TV" by making its finance programmes "somewhat entertaining".

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