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".