Cnbc Adjusts Its Dials In Asia

For money-losing Asia business broadcaster CNBC, it was an accomplishment to crow about. By signing a key Indian agreement on Feb. 13, CNBC became the most widely distributed TV business network in the region, leapfrogging Dow Jones & Co.'s Asia Business News (ABN). "It's a game-changing event," boasts Fung Shing Kwong, president of NBC Asia, who predicts the demise of ABN within a year. "We have instant commercial mass."

The agreement with India's largest cable operator, the Hinduja group, is a much needed piece of good news for a network that has been hammered by huge initial costs and paltry ad revenues since it started up in mid-1995. CNBC shows how hard it can be for U.S. companies to succeed in Asia. "It's a tough go. I won't deny that for a second," says Thomas S. Rogers, president of NBC Cable in New York. Despite reports of internal turmoil and programming blunders, Rogers exudes optimism. He's spending huge sums to build a network in this market, just as CNBC lost millions in the U.S. before it became a money machine. Rogers expects NBC's Asian channels to break even sometime around 2000. When that happens, he says, "the asset values become enormous."