MUMBAI: BBC World has been rated as the most trusted international news channel, according to International Air Travellers Survey (IATS), Global 2005.

BBC won with 46 per cent among those surveyed voting for it, ahead of TV5 (, CNBC, Bloomberg and CNN.
The survey was conducted across 25 major airports, investigating international travellers' consumption of global television channels and publications.

When asked about their most recent television viewing, 9.8 per cent of international travellers surveyed had watched BBC World the previous day, 18.3 per cent in the last week and 25.8 per cent in the last month. As evidence of BBC World’s strength over non-general news, daily audience figures exceed CNBC’s weekly viewership of 6.4 per cent, as well as Bloomberg’s monthly audience of 4.4 per cent.

The gap between CNN and BBC World’s reach has reduced considerably in recent years, according to a BBC World release. In 2002, BBC World’s daily reach was approximately half of CNN. The latest results show BBC World’s reach at 9.8 per cent, dramatically closing the gap on CNN’s 12 per cent, an index of 82 per cent.

In terms of audience profile, BBC World’s daily audience is even greater among those flying first or the affluent business class (13 per cent), among frequent flyers (6+ business trips 14 per cent), high earners ($100k+ API 15 per cent), senior government officials (16 per cent), and senior executives in large firms (18 per cent).

The survey results are particularly encouraging coming at a time when the channel has put a renewed focus on live news content and launched its biggest ever brand campaign Putting News First.

BBC World’s daily audience surpasses that for any other channel surveyed amongst residents of Central Europe, the Indian Sub-Continent, Australasia/ Pacific, Africa, Canada, Hong Kong, the UK and Ireland, Sweden, and many other countries, including the 100 respondents from Iraq.

The media release also adds that in terms of media consumption, news remains the most popular genre amongst travellers, with news television viewership consistently higher than news readership across all regions. 17 per cent of travellers interviewed said that they had watched either BBC World or CNN the day before, compared to only 13 per cent who said they had read either Financial Times, International Herald Tribune, USA Today or the Wall Street Journal the day before or Time, Newsweek, Business Week and The Economist in the past week.

Commenting on the research findings BBC World director of airtime sales Jonathan Howlett said, “The close affinity between international travellers – both leisure and business – and global international news channels has never been demonstrated so clearly, with such a wide audience gap between international news and all other programming genres. Also consistency – viewers in all regions trust BBC World more than its leading competitor – a vital quality among those who will be away from home. It is also interesting to note the lack of connection between travel and either documentary or business channels.”

The study measures the viewership of international channels and readership of international publications among international air travelers.