Naked newscasters strip away all but the bare facts

The show is also broadcast as a pay-per-view television channel in countries including Britain, Israel, the Philippines, South Africa and Thailand. The channel recently struck a deal to launch a version of the show in Japan.

Taped in Toronto, Canada, and brandishing the slogan, "The program with nothing to hide," Naked News was launched in 1999 and found almost immediate success, with its reputation spreading mostly by word of mouth.

Producer Lucas Tyler describes the program as tasteful and professional but acknowledges it has its critics.

"News and entertainment -- the line between them has skewed. Everyone has their own gimmick, and ours is naked women," he said. "If you are against nudity, you are going to be against our show."

The only stories he says the programme avoids are those involving children and religion. "We already know that we're a controversial show, so we don't want to mix religion with nudity."

The company also broadcasts a version of the show with male presenters, which, although originally geared towards women, was relaunched as a gay show when the company realized most of its viewers were actually male.

Tyler said the fact that the company was still in business proved its broadcasts were filling a niche.

"At the end of the day our program wouldn't have survived this long if it was just based on breasts, if it was like an air-head show," he said.

"The nudity wears off very fast."