Sky News still top European TV news channel

by Fiona Ramsay, Media Week 23-Jul-08, 08:00

LONDON - Sky News has retained its position as the leading pan-European news TV channel among Europe's leading business executives.

According to the 2007 European Media and Marketing Survey (EMS) survey, which polls the main income earner in Europe's top 20% of homes by income, Sky News increased its daily reach to 5.3% from 5% in 2006. Daily reach is defined by the percentage of respondents claiming to watch the channel daily.

Overall, news and business TV channels posted a healthy performance among this demographic, increasing daily reach from 15.3% to 16.1%.

But among the EMS Select respondents, which represent the top 3% of earners across Europe, the daily reach of news and business TV channels dropped slightly from 21.1% in 2006, to 20.9% in 2007.

Sky News was the only news/business channel to increase its daily reach among the EMS Select group, lifting its daily reach from 7% to 7.5%.

Among general TV channels, such as music, sport and factual channels, Eurosport proved most popular among the wider EMS panel of Europe's top 20% of homes, with a daily reach of 10.6%.

On a monthly reach basis, however, CNN International was most popular with EMS Regular viewers, reaching 33.4%, compared to EuroNews' monthly reach of 31.4%. Among the Select group, CNN International achieved a monthly reach of 45.7%.

Of the pan-European daily newspapers, the Financial Times was again the title of choice, with a 1.4% daily reach. Time magazine was the most popular weekly news title with a 2.7% reach.

The Financial Times website fared well among the newspaper websites, with a weekly reach of 4.4%. The BBC World and news websites pulled in 14.5% of the EMS Regular panel.