BBC Worldwide Press Releases

28.06.02

BBC World's European audience has grown more than any other general news channel, says EMS 2002 survey

BBC World, the BBC's 24-hour international news and information channel, today welcomed new evidence of its increasing viewership in Europe from the European Media and Marketing Survey (EMS) 2002.

The pan-European survey, which measures daily, weekly and monthly audience reach amongst the main income earners in the top 20% of households, showed BBC World to have increased on all three measures. Its growth of 11% in monthly audience reach was greater than for any other general news channel.

• Main points from the EMS 2002 survey:
  BBC World's audience reach has grown for the seventh consecutive year (of EMS surveys) in daily, weekly and monthly audience reach.
  
• BBC World's monthly audience in Europe grew to 5.7 million amongst the EMS universe of affluent Europeans. This increase of 11% year on year was greater than for all other general news channels - three of which (Deutsche Welle, Euronews, Sky News) saw their monthly audience reach fall year-on-year.
  
• BBC World's daily audience has gone up by 32% from 510,000 (1.3%) to 673,000 (1.7%).
  
• BBC World has also dramatically increased its lead over CNBC in daily reach to 138,000 viewers per day.
  
• BBC World's monthly audience reach shows that the channel has 2.3 million more viewers than Bloomberg.
  BBC World also continues to attract the most upscale audience of any International channel, with the highest proportion of:

  Opinion Formers 28%
  3+ & 6+ business travellers 28%/17%
  Senior Managers 11%
  University Graduates 43%

In addition to the findings from the survey on television channel audiences, EMS 2002 finds that most international print titles suffered lower levels of Average Issue Readership (A.I.R) in 2001 than in 2000.

Commenting on the survey, Jeremy Nye, Head of Research and Planning, BBC World, said: "It is great to see again a steady increase in our European audience and that we are doing particularly well in relation to our competitors in the market.

"It is worth pointing out however, that the latest EMS survey does not reflect the growth in viewership to international news during the six months since fieldwork finished (December 2001).

"Nor do the headline figures fully convey BBC World's strength among the more upscale business targets. In order to plan advertising campaigns aimed at these groups, and for viewership since January 2002, you need to use the Europe 2002 survey, released on July 4th."

European Media and Marketing Survey 2002
*Universe of 40 million adults in 16 countries
*Conducted by the company Inter/View, Amsterdam
*Phone survey and self-completion postal survey

Source: EMS 2002.Copyright Inter/View International

Notes to Editors:

BBC World is the BBC's 24-hour, English language, international news and information channel, reaching 220 million homes in 200 countries and territories worldwide (93 million 24-hour homes). In Europe, BBC World is available in 55 million European households on a 24-hour basis. Launched in its present form in 1995, BBC World is a commercial service, run by BBC Worldwide and funded by advertising and subscription.

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