CNN International (CNNI) has kept its lead as the channel of choice in a survey of Asian business travellers. The syndicated media survey, IATS Asia (the International Air Travel Survey), showed that 24.9 per cent of 16,149 travellers surveyed in eight Asian airports had watched CNNI the previous day. CNNI's position was down from the 35 per cent share it held in 1994 when it surveyed about 15,000 business travellers. Its closest competitor for general news was the BBC World Service with 11.6 per cent. In the business channels, Asia Business News (ABN) and CNBC Asia, participating in their first survey, were seen by 8.9 per cent and 3.5 per cent respectively. Sports channel ESPN Asia was seen by 4.2 per cent. The Asian Wall Street Journal posted the strongest performance among the international print dailies at 5.9 per cent, followed by USA Today (5.2 per cent), the International Herald Tribune (4 per cent) and the Financial Times (2.1 per cent). Time was the strongest print weekly at 13 per cent, followed by Newsweek (11.8 per cent) and Asiaweek (11 per cent).
