MUMBAI: News broadcaster CNN International has reconfirmed its position as the leading news brand for the global financial community, across all regions (Asia, Europe, Latin America and North America) according to the Global Capital Markets Survey (GCMS) 2006, which was conducted by Objective Research.

At the same time, the latest Pan Asia Cross Media survey (Pax) underscores the findings by demonstrating that CNN continues to most successfully reach the wider business elite of financial decision makers regardless of rank/seniority across the Asia Pacific region.

CNN Intl ad sales VP Asia Pacific William Hsu says, “The message for advertisers is clear that if you want to reach the business elite, CNN delivers that better than any other channel. We are particularly delighted that these ultimate financial decision makers turn to CNN rather than the dedicated finance and business channels available”. CNN already has a roster of clients from banking and financial institutions, including HSBC, UBS and Credit Suisse.

CNN leads all channels in the GCMS survey in key measurements, consolidating its role as the number one media choice for CFOs, senior financial decision makers in the world’s largest organisations, and top managers of financial institutions, commercial and investment banks.

Globally on a monthly basis, the GCMS survey shows that CNN records an increased reach of 78.7 per cent, which represents a nearly 44 per cent higher reach than that of its nearest competitor, CNBC. In the Asia Pacific alone, CNN reaches 79.5% of financial managers in large companies and senior executives in banks and financial institutions, while the network’s reach also exceeds all competition on both a weekly and daily basis.

Additionally, the GCMS survey finds that CNN leads all competitors in being considered ‘up to the minute’ and ‘influential’ and that one in three respondents tunes in to CNN from around the world when traveling. CNN’s strong performance continues online, with financial managers in large companies choosing CNN.com ahead of all other online news options, including Bloomberg.com and CNBC.com.

While GCMS represents the very top level of financial executives globally, the Pax survey includes the broader finance and investment community across 11 markets in the Asia Pacific region, and while the scope of the two surveys may differ, the newly released Pax findings for the 12 months ending September 2005 underline the fact that CNN is the core news and business channel for financial decision makers regardless of rank/seniority.

According to Pax, almost half (46.8 per cent) of the 1.4 million executives working in finance/accounting and investment watch CNN across a month, two thirds more than watch the nearest competitor. On a weekly basis, the reliance on CNN is clearer still, with 28.4 per cent tuning into CNN, 93 per cent more than the nearest competitor.

Measured year-on-year, CNN has enjoyed audience growth among the region’s finance/accounting and investment executives, with CNN's weekly and monthly audiences more than doubling. The GCMS Survey provides data on TV viewing, website usage and readership among CFOs and senior financial decision makers in the world’s largest organisations, and among top managers of financial institutions, commercial and investment banks. Conducted by Objective Research, with a global universe of 10,597 in 31 countries, the fieldwork was carried out between May and November 2005.

Pax is a syndicated cross-media survey started in 1997, providing measurement of TV, print and online, across 11 major markets in Asia Pacific, i.e. Bangkok, Hong Kong, India (Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore), Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Seoul, Singapore, Australia (Melbourne, Sydney), Taipei, Tokyo. The fieldwork for these findings was carried out between October 2004 to September 2005 across a range of business decision-makers, top management and affluent adults aged between 25 and 64. The full year-on-year survey provides an annual database updated quarterly to show the trends over time.