AMSTERDAM: Eurosport, the Financial Times and CNN are among the most popular media brands with affluent European consumers, a survey has revealed.

Synovate, the research firm, polled 27,028 people in 20 countries, all of which came from the top 13% of highest earners and leading 20% of households.

The Financial Times was the daily newspaper boasting the strongest regional readership levels, of 910,000 people, or 1.9% of the demographic under assessment.

Some 376,000 consumers in this audience were drawn from the UK, equivalent to 5.9% of the country's wealthiest citizens.

"The latest EMS survey shows that the Financial Times is the newspaper of choice for Europe's highest earners and opinion formers, and is further testament to the growth of our core readership," Anita Hague, the FT's global research director, said.

Elsewhere, the Wall Street Journal's European edition attracted 317,000 readers a day, with 67,000 residing in the United Kingdom.

The International Herald Tribune was regularly perused by 245,000 consumers, and performed particularly well in Germany, with a daily audience of 50,000 adults.

USA Today followed next, on 239,000 readers, around a fifth of which were British.

Regarding freesheets, the Metro (not including the UK title of the same name) had a penetration of 2.9m per day.

Among weekly magazines, Time registered 1.7m readers, ahead of the Economist, on 1.3m, with Business Week further back, on 352,000.

Turning to fortnightly magazines, Forbes led the rankings, enjoyed by 670,000 people, beating Fortune's comparative figure of 574,000.

Eurosport headed the TV charts for the 16th straight year, reaching 13.1m viewers every week, or 27.9% of the potential wealthy audience.

Indeed, the channel also managed to engage 31.9% of the 3%, or 2.6m, of relevant consumers across Europe.

"The more upscale the audience, the more they watch Eurosport - showing we are a very attractive proposition for advertisers wishing to reach Europe's highest earners," said Laurent-Eric Le Lay, CEO of Eurosport Group.

MTV, the music station owned by Viacom, gained the attention of 12.3m individuals per week, a 26.2% reach, and claiming second place for pan-European broadcasters.

Sky News was the premier news provider, on 15.7%, trumping CNN's 14.6% and Euronews' 14%.

"As news consumers' habits evolve, the CNN brand demonstrates its strength in offering innovative cross-platform advertising solutions that reach an influential, elite audience," said Jonathan Davies, EVP, advertising sales, CNN International.

When covering TV, online and mobile combined, Eurosport's monthly reach hit 55%, MTV's rose to 43%, the Discovery Channel logged 40%, CNN secured 40% and National Geographic posted 38%.

Data sourced from Media Week/CNN; additional content by Warc staff