BBC World ranked top international news channel for travelers

Media release, May 31, 2005

Mumbai

The latest International Air Travelers Survey , Global 2005 –which for the first time included interviews within India –has found BBC World to be the favourite international news channel for traveling Indian residents and those flying to India. The study, conducted across 25 major airports around the world, includes responses from 28,000 air travellers and aims to understand the media consumption habits of the elusive international traveler.

BBC World was found to have a daily reach of 17.7% among travelling Indian residents and 12.7% among those travelling to India, more than all other channels, including news, sports and infotainment. 35% of Indians watch BBC World each week.

The study shows encouraging results on various image attributes for the channel amidst inbound and outbound air travellers at the hub Mumbai airport, a reflection of channel’s key strengths as seen by these core audiences.

BBC World is by far the most trusted international news channel – with 34% of Indians or those travelling to India nominating BBC World as the most trustworthy international news channel, far ahead of CNN <18%>; CNBC <11%> and Bloomberg <1%>. BBC World was also more highly rated than CNN, and all other channels, in terms of giving an international viewpoint (BBC World 23% vs CNN 12%), influential (12% vs 6%), first with the news (16% vs14%) and favourite channel while travelling (11% vs 5%).

As well as the media data, the survey also looked at behaviour when making international air trips, and uncovered a sharp difference between Indians and others. Indians interviewed around the world spend slightly longer in security checks than others, but 60% longer in the shops – nearly 16 minutes instead of 10 among everyone, and 36 minutes among those actually shopping. Indian travellers are the kings of duty-free – nearly 25% more likely to buy a duty-free product, and twice as likely to buy whisky. They were also more likely to find the whole flying experience relaxing – they were ten times more likely to find the flight relaxing as stressful, far more than flyers in general. This is hardly surprising because they were also 50% more likely than other nationalities to sleep during the flight.

Commenting on the research findings, Jeremy Nye, head of research and planning, BBC World, says, “IATS is an important source to understand and provide invaluable insight into this very elite target group, which is not only very influential but hard to survey. The survey reflects a world which is internationalising and having BBC World as the preferred choice for this core audience is a great encouragement for us.”

Dezma deMelo, senior research manager, based in Mumbai, BBC World adds, “India’s addition to this survey emphasizes the country’s importance as part of the global travel and on the world map, andof course BBC World has long been recognised as a vital news resource for India’s most influential and international decision-makers. In return, we are now engaged in a major research project exploring International India, to understand the nature of India’s growing relationship with the outside world. We will report results from this project in due course”

Further information, please contact

Greishma Singh

Genesis Public Relations

0124 504 4999

gsingh@genesispr.com