MUMBAI: BBC World asserts that more of Europe's senior business people watch it each week than the number that tune in to the two business news channels - Bloomberg and CNBC - combined.

Quoting data contained in the EBRS 2004 BBC World study, the news channel claims it is watched each week by 9.5 per cent of Europe's senior business executives. The combined viewership of Bloomberg and CNBC, according to the study, is just 8 per cent.

As per the survey's findings, more CEOs in Europe's largest companies who expressed an opinion rate BBC World as "important business viewing" than many of its competitors. The channel's 21 per cent figure is higher than Bloomberg (19 per cent), Euronews (18 per cent), Sky News (16 per cent) or CNBC (9 per cent).

The study, which covered television viewership for the first time, provides a detailed profile of the media consumption of business leaders and key decision-makers around Europe. Thirty-two per cent of Europe's business elite watch BBC channels or are using BBC websites each week, far higher than CNN or ARD (both 22 per cent) or RTL (21 per cent), as per the study.

EBRS was conducted by Ipsos-RSL among senior business people in 17 European countries. The universe of 431,216 includes industrial and commercial establishments.

Television scores over print: EBRS 2004 also confirms that pan-European television is more effective than weekly pan-European print titles at reaching business people. Forty-one per cent of those surveyed watch pan-European television, compared to just 16 per cent for the printed publications. Both mediums are consumed equally, each reaching 17 per cent of those questioned, each day.

When one takes income into consideration BBC World reaches the creamy layer. The beeb reaches more business people with personal incomes of Euro 225,000 or higher, and more directors and international financial decision-makers than CNBC, Bloomberg or Euronews. In terms of audience profile, BBC World attracts a more upscale audience than the survey universe:

A sister survey to EBRS, known as CEBRS goes into detail about viewing habits among the business elite in Central Europe. This shows that the gap between BBC World and its business news competitors is even greater than in Western
Europe. Of the people surveyed, 20.2 per cent watched the channel each week, compared to CNBC (5.1 per cent) and Bloomberg (2.7 per cent).

The reach of international television dwarfs international print in Central Europe. Each day, international TV is watched by 26 per cent of all business people, compared to the nine per cent who read any international newspaper.

BBC World airtime sales director Jonathan Howlett, added, "These figures prove that Europe's top business people have a broader agenda than specialist financial news, or locally oriented news channels. They are turning to BBC World for our analysis of global events and our award-winning business programming and know they can trust us to cover the stories that are integral to their lives."