Daybreak Australia is a new Bloomberg TV program that is jointly hosted out of Sydney and New York, putting the spotlight on markets here for an hour a day on the global business TV network.
Haidi Lun moved from Hong Kong to Sydney earlier this year to co-host the new show from Sydney, and she shares hosting duties with New York-based anchor Betty Liu. After Daybreak Australia finishes its broadcast, Liu stays on air to co-anchor Daybreak Asia with a co-host in Hong Kong.
When asked about the Bloomberg TV operation and the number of feeds into different markets, Bloomberg head of news and programming Paul Yurisich started by telling Mediaweek: “It’s complicated! There is one global feed out of New York which goes around the world with a 24-hour network schedule. Within that there are a few local nuances.” One of those nuances is that some programs run at different times in different territories, like Charlie Rose Show for example.
Parry Ravindranathan, managing director of international for Bloomberg Media Group, added: “The Australian feed is a separate feed that allows some flexibility. However, the schedule so far has been a global one. We have the option to increase the Australian content when and if we need.”
Paul Yurisich
Other territories that see Daybreak Australia include Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Asia region. Due to conflicts with market timing, the program is not screened into the US.
As to international interest in the Australian market, Yurisich said there is a quite a bit and the new program is an idea Bloomberg has considered for some time. “Australia is a country that reflects what is happening in the wider market. It is easily big enough to have its own breakout programming. And for Bloomberg it is part of following the day around the world and it is the first major market to open each day.”
In addition to the Foxtel Bloomberg channel, the business feed is also streamed on the Bloomberg site on all platforms and can be viewed on the Bloomberg app.
When asked about how it sits alongside other business offerings like Fox Business, CNBC and even Australia’s Sky News Business, Yurisich said: “Our underlying advantage is that we have people in more than 120 countries, which includes a good setup in Australia with offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth.”
Ravindranathan: “We are more finance focused than many of our competitors. We are synonymous with finance and we draw on the Bloomberg terminal which is the definitive tool that people use in the finance industry. We cover other areas of business too though, and various sectors. Some others tend to be more retail focused – we are less so.”
As to how those differences are reflected in the content, Yurisich explained: “Some of our interviews tend to be longer because we have so much information to draw on.” As an example, Yurisich mentionted a recent Daybreak Australia interview with the CFO of Rio Tinto, Chris Lynch.
Haidi Lun
Bloomberg is known for its army of international reporters and the diverse makeup of that team. It is also known as a great training ground for people entering the media. “The great thing about Bloomberg is journalists can specialise in a specific area,” said Yurisich.
Ravindranathan: “We don’t work like a media company. Media is a small fraction of the Bloomberg business. That makes our business model different from everyone else’s. We are able to attract really good TV talent and some great magazine talent. [Bloomberg continues to publish three magazines.] We also have a robust radio service based out of New York, London and Hong Kong.
“We are cross platform in every way, yet not beholden to some of the business challenges that many of our competitors have.”
For journalists the ability to have their content appearing on different platforms across the Bloomberg world can be very exciting, added Yurisich. “Bloomberg can connect with its customers right across the day on its various platforms.”
Bloomberg is also looking at co-anchoring one of its Asia shows from Sydney. “We want to get Haidi involved in one of the Asia Pacific shows too,” said Yurisich. “In the wider Asia regional we are also looking at involving Singapore in the mix with a new TV studio there. We want to make sure we have Asia completely covered.”
Yurisich, from New Zealand, didn’t rule out some coverage from there in the future too. “We have an office in Wellington and are installing a camera there.”