Daily Research News Online no. 3050 - Asian Media Survey Results

Asian Media Survey Results

April 13 2004

Synovate has released data from its Pan Asia Pacific Cross Media Survey (Synovate PAX) for the final quarter of 2003. The survey tracks media, prosperity and influence in eleven markets across the Asia Pacific region.

The markets are Singapore, Hong Kong, Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Taiwan, India, Australia and Japan. The survey aims to answer questions in three main areas:

What do Asia's business decision makers read and watch?
How have regional and world events impacted media consumption?
Which products have been embraced by innovators and early adopters?

The Reader's Digest achieves the highest reach among print titles, whether among the total PAX audience (defined as 'the top 20% of adults in Asia Pacific') or just top management. Next come Time, Newsweek and National Geographic. In terms of TV viewing the Discovery Channel, National Geographic and CNN take the top slots, again regardless of whether the entire survey audience is considered or just top management.

Steve Garton, Media Director for Synovate said that at an individual channel and title level,
the audience reach for TV over 7 days and average issue readership shows no statistically
significant change between the year to Q3 2003 and the year to Q4 2003. 'This means regional media has retained its strength in the media mix for agencies and marketers targeting affluent Asians. Indeed, as the only upscale media tracking survey in the region, PAX also shows that Asia's richest consumers continue to lead the way with the early adoption of new products and services'.

Past 7 Days TV Viewing, reach into PAX universe
11 markets total - Q1'03 to Q4'03

Past 7 Days TV Viewing, reach into PAX universe
11 markets total – Q1’03 to Q4’03
	Total 11 markets
	All PAX	All Top Management
Sample size	18987	5842
Projected universe	12947999	676896
	%	%
Discovery Channel	21.28	19.22
CNN	15.82	19.52
National Geographic Channel	15.39	14.93
MTV	12.75	8.9
STAR Movies	9.37	9.06
ESPN	9.27	11.3
BBC World	8.69	9.46
Cartoon Network	7.46	5.07
STAR Sports	7.22	10.14
CNBC*	6.10	9.43
AXN Asia	6.02	6.97
Animal Planet	5.68	4.25
Channel [V]	4.71	5.08
STAR World	4.32	3.78
Phoenix Chinese Channel	3.51	2.18
Channel NewsAsia	3.40	3.88
Hallmark Channel	3.00	2.58
Bloomberg Television	1.92	1.97
Nicklelodeon	1.48	0.99
Sport-i ESPN	0.76	-
Channel [V] International	0.71	0.57
Note: Cells with a sample size of less than 8 have not been shown. * Includes CNBC Asia, CNBC Hong Kong, CNBC Singapore, CNBC India, MBN- CNBC, CNBC Australia and Nikkei CNBC

Average Issue Readership (AIR), reach into PAX universe
10 markets total – Q1’03 to Q4’03
	Total 10 markets
	All PAX	All Top Management
Sample size	17552	5421
Projected universe	8245999	372896
	%	%
Reader's Digest**	14.93	21.12
Reader's Digest English	9.22	14.13
National Geographic	7.85	8.58
Time	5.71	9.50
Newsweek*	4.78	8.86
Reader's Digest Chinese	4.77	2.85
BusinessWeek	2.69	6.00
Business Traveller	1.73	3.48
The Economist	1.68	5.17
Fortune	1.63	3.88
Yazhou Zhoukan	1.50	1.42
Asiamoney	1.30	2.62
Review	0.98	2.08
Forbes	0.64	1.68
CFO Asia	0.56	3.25
Asia Inc.	0.53	1.58
Asian Wall Street Journal	0.49	1.87
Financial Times	0.46	2.22
International Herald Tribune	0.27	1.15
USA Today	0.24	0.43
Far Eastern Economic
Note: Cells with a sample size of less than 8 have not been shown. * Includes Newsweek and The Bulletin with Newsweek ** Includes Reader's Digest English, Reader's Digest Chinese, Reader's Digest Thai/ Sansara and Reader's Digest Korean.

Print media, in particular, shows high selectivity into major consumer purchases such as new cars and large screen TVs. Steve Garton says that 'Business audiences have a particularly strong relationship with regional media. Frequent business travellers, those flying on business or first class and executives working on international development can be twice as likely or more to be consulting regional print and TV. There is an even stronger link between Top Management and their media of choice'.

Naturally, audiences for particular channels and titles differ hugely from country to country - more detailed findings are available for download from the Synovate Web site [ www.synovate.com/pax ].

It should be noted that the results cover 10 countries for print and 11 countries for TV. In Tokyo, which has a PAX-qualifying population of 4,702,000 (some 36% of the entire 11 country total), only TV is measured. Synovate PAX typically covers the capital city in each country, with the addition of Mumbai and Bangalore in India. In Australia, the survey is conducted in Sydney.

The following charts are only a selection of those available from the site, and show the proportion of print media readers users who own or intend to buy products or purchase services, or who conduct a specified activity. For example, on the first chart, amongst readers of any regional print title, 70% own a car. Amongst those who don't read a regional title, only 64% have a car. Results for TV viewers are less pronounced - for example 26% of top management who read regional print titles have made 3+ business trips, against 19% of TV channel viewers, and 16% of print title readers fly Business / First Class, against 12% of TV channel viewers.

Synovate PAX Print Readers Stats a