bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

sponsorType

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

NATIONAL Broadcasting Company (NBC) and Anheuser-Busch have announced their first multi-million-dollar, four-year international advertising agreement. The deal is effective from January.

   The agreement bodes well for the Hong Kong-based NBC Asia as it hopes to launch its second channel, the NBC Channel, also in January.

  The deal will see the American brewing giant sponsor numerous sports and entertainment programmes on NBC international properties.

  Norm Bierman, executive vice-president of NBC Cable and International, NBC Sales, said the agreement was a great opportunity to grow together as Anheuser-Busch's international strategy was consistent with the network's.

  The new NBC Channel will be a general entertainment one of news, sports and entertainment combining local programming with shows from NBC America and Europe.

  NBC Asia president S. K. Fung welcomed the agreement saying the network had steadily been attracting blue-chip advertisers such as Phillips, Cathay Pacific and General Electric and was moving away from the direct-marketing commercials so prevalent on Hong Kong's terrestrial stations.

  He said CNBC Asia, the network's business channel that launched on June 20, targeted a specific audience that was valuable to advertisers.

  'We have a different type of audience from the terrestrial stations. It's businessmen, the working professional and people with money to invest. These people are worth a lot of money to advertisers,' he said.

  'By advertising on our channel, the advertiser is reaching a specific audience even though they don't know precisely how many people are watching. If they were to advertise on Pearl, they might reach a lot more people but a lot of it is wastage as they are not the target audience. Our channel gives advertisers a specific target reach.'   Since his appointment in August, Mr Fung said he had tried to strengthen the editorial content of CNBC. He had also made moves to establish bureaus in Shanghai and Bangkok.

  Mr Fung was previously the general manager of TVB International.

  He said the network was also considering launching business channels in India, Japan and Taiwan. The network was making plans to tailor CNBC to specific markets by mixing customised local footage with network programming.

  'The way we anticipate we will be developing in the region is Pan-Asian. We will cover all the key markets and version the channel to make it a specialised channel,' he said.

  'If we get the content right, it will help the distribution. The more relevant your content is, the more you are in demand.'    NBC Asia, which is seen in Hong Kong on Wharf Cable, has recently signed a distribution deal in the Philippines and will continue to pursue distribution avenues in China.

  Mr Fung said the network was trying to get distribution in China.

  'We are working with cable systems to get re-transmission of the channel or parts of our channel in China. We're on in Guangdong and we are being transmitted among some cable systems in the provinces,' he said.

  'We try to get on air among terrestrial broadcasters which are free-to-air in China. We're seen in Shanghai TV on a free-to-air basis, not the entire channel but parts of our programming.'   Mr Fung said some of the network's growth had come at the expense of its competitors.

  'We have distribution and it is growing. The bottom line is to make money. Let's check the report card two years down the road and see who makes money,' he said.



NBC Asia in major deal with sponsor