ESPNEWS commits to Malaysia market

ESPNEWS   SPORTS   ADVERTISING

Malaysia - ESPNEWS has reaffirmed its commitment to the Malaysia market, announcing plans to expand its local operation with staff and more localised content.

The news comes on the back of a prediction from Charles Less (pictured), SVP advertising and digital media sales, ESPN Star Sports, that the sports channel will record ad revenue growth between 20% to 40% in 2011.

Launched just eight months ago, Less said Malaysia was one of ESPNEWS' largest SE Asia markets in terms of sales and advertising revenue, when compared with regional counterparts Cambodia, Indonesia, Korea, Vietnam, Singapore and Myanmar.

Throughout January this year ESPNEWS commanded a fortnightly audience share of 1.134 million, outdoing the combined viewership of regional English news stations CNN, BBC, Bloomberg TV, and CNBC by 118%.

While Less added ESPNEWS' immediate focus is to continue growing the channel, he hinted local language content was being considered.

Leading the channel's revenue growth are key advertisers Maxis, Petronas, MyEG and Panasonic.

According to AGB NMR/Arianna figures, the channel has emerged as the country's top in its category for a second consecutive period (19 - 31 January). It reached 1.125 million viewers during the first measurement exercise (1 - 18 January). 

The sports news channel also excelled in its reach towards the male PMEB demographic segment, garnering a viewership of over 230,000 during the second period measured - 140% more than the combined audience of competitors with only 97,000 viewers.

"This provides a great opportunity for advertisers to reach out to this prized audience in a far more focused and targeted manner. Going forward, we are looking at offering this network in languages which will further grow its base and attract new audience," Manu Sawhney, ESS managing director said in reference to ESPNEWS' growing performance.

At present, ESS boasts a stable of 23 networks (21 television and 2 broadband) across Asia and it is broadcasted in 24 countries. Football, Formula One and tennis lead the way for ESPNEWS in terms of content demand based on the preferences of viewers.

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