In what was a phenomenal year for world news events, CNN's audience growth across the Asia Pacific region out-paced all gains for the news genre as a whole, with daily audiences up by a remarkable 35% year-on-year. Further evidence of CNN's pre-eminence comes in the results that show the network is viewed by 14% more people each week, and 16% more each month, than all other news and business channels combined.

“With the fast pace of globalization more and more people find they need an international perspective so we are absolutely delighted with this further ringing endorsement of CNN's newsgathering credentials”, said Duncan Morris, Vice President of Research, Turner International Asia Pacific. “Our award winning coverage of global events has clearly resonated with our audience, particularly so as we are watched by 39% more top management each day than any other measured channel. The benefits of this audience growth for advertisers are real as, for example, each month CNN now reaches 169,000 (+40%) more people planning to buy an LCD or plasma TV than it did a year ago, as well as 479,000 or 23% more car owners.”

These were the 6 th successive set of PAX results to show growth in CNN's audience, one which also added 56% more past-week viewers and 65% more past-month viewers than the next placed news channel (BBC World). The full-year survey results, conducted by Synovate, further reveal almost half (46%) of CNN's weekly audience view no other news/business channel during the course of a week, and 39% of them remain loyal across a month. Online, CNN.com remains the leading regional website, visited by 54% more PAX respondents across a month than the next largest broadcaster or publisher's website.

CNN International offers comprehensive international and regional news coverage 24 hours a day and provides prime-time morning and evening news and business programming for viewers in the Asia Pacific. Programs including CNN TODAY, WORLD NEWS ASIA, GLOBAL OFFICE and popular chat show TALK ASIA are broadcast from the network's regional headquarters in Hong Kong .

Notes to the Editor:

PAX represents a universe of 14.2 million adults aged 25-64 within 11 Asia Pacific markets:- Australia (Sydney + Melbourne), Bangkok , Hong Kong , India ( Delhi + Mumbai + Bangalore ), Jakarta , Kuala Lumpur , Manila , Seoul , Singapore , Taipei , Tokyo .

These 14.2 million individuals consist of 13.0 million “Affluent Adults”, 3.8 million “Business Decision Makers” and 0.8 million “Top Management”.

With a total sample size of over 20,000, PAX fieldwork takes place continually throughout the year. Results are released each quarter on a rolling 4-quarters basis. The Q1-Q4 2005 period represents the latest PAX data release.