TV Round-Up – September 1998

Revenue Agency estimates for September 1998 put total terrestrial TV ad revenue (including GMTV) at £225.62 million. Year on year all the channels have shown an increase in revenue.

ITV’s total revenue was up by 4.4% to £163.6 million, C4’s rose by 5.3% to £49.3 million and C5’s revenue was £12.7 million – a rise of 40.6% year on year. GMTV also reported a year on year gain in revenue, up by 2.9% to £7.2 million.

September Franchise Revenue Shares (%)

Source: Agency Estimates

Impacts ITV’s Adults impacts were down year on year for September, by 0.6% to 23,887. ITV also lost ad impacts in the Women and Housewives audience categories, but gained in across Men, Housewives/Children and ABC1 Adults.

Channel 4’s impacts were up for all audiences, notably Housewives/Children, up 20.6%. C4 Adults impacts were 7,805 for September. Channel 5 continues to improve its effectiveness for advertisers with all audience categories showing increases.

September Impacts Year on Year Comparisons

Costs Per Thousand On ITV costs were once again up year on year for all audiences, particularly women (7.4% to 1,365p). ABC1 Adults cost 2,268p to reach and Adults were 830p. Channels 4 and 5 continue to become cheaper, with the exception of ABC1 Adults on C5 for which CPTs increased by 4.9% to 1,388p.

September CPTs Year on Year Comparisons

Viewing ITV’s share of viewing was down by 1.8% points compared to September last year but the Network still maintained its lead over BBC1 which dropped by 3.2% points. The battle currently stands at 33.5% versus 31.2% in ITV’s favour. All the other channels, however, showed viewing growth year on year; Channel 5 hit an average share of 5% during last month.

September Viewing Shares Year on Year Comparisons

Industry News

• Media giant BSkyB made a takeover offer to Manchester United Football Club of £623 million. Although the board of the club accepted the offer, fans of the club reacted negatively and the deal is currently under consideration by the Office Of Fair Trading.
• BSkyB appeared to have set off a trend with their move, precipitating numerous other media groups approaching football clubs. Arsenal entered talks with Carlton, and Tottenham Hotspur were approached by leisure group Enic.
• ITV continued to refuse to allow its network to be carried by Sky’s digital satellite service, despite Sky arguing that ITV looked set to miss out on saving £500 million by failing to sign up during the ITC renegotiation of its licences.
• Still on the subject of digital services, BSkyB announced feature film production plans in its drive to draw in subscribers to its digital satellite service. The company plans to produce five feature films over the next two years, some of which will be exclusive to Sky Television. Apparently Sky has already signed up Trainspotting star, Ewan McGregor.
• The BBC launched its digital television channel BBC Choice, towards the end of September, making it the first new BBC channel in 34 years.
• Both Cable & Wireless and ONdigital announced their digital package launch details. Cable & Wireless is yet to set a specific date for the launch of its digital cable service next year; ONdigital go live on 15 November. At the Edinburgh International Television Festival, Peter Rogers – chief executive of the ITC – warned pay-TV operators against confusing the public with digital TV advertising campaigns which criticised rival’s services. The ITC also announced that it was too early to set a date for the switch-off the analogue television signal.
• The ITC, following a consultation on interoperability and open-access, ruled that digital operators and broadcasters would be allowed to build TV sets that have the software needed to receive their services embedded in the set. The watchdog added that suppliers would have to ensure that such sets would have to be able to accept plug-ins for competitor’s systems.
• Digital teletext was launched towards the end of the month at the LIVE ’98 Exhibition, Earl’s Court, featuring enhanced graphics, modern fonts, the ability to broadcast photographs and an easier and faster way to move around the service.
• Satellite porn channel Eurotica Rendez Vous was subject to a proscription order served by the ITC, declaring the channel unacceptable following advice from Chris Smith, culture secretary.
• ITV announced that it was planning to axe its News At Ten bulletin, and planning to replace it with shorter early and late evening programmes. In response to this, the ITC invited opinion on the idea and is currently considering the proposal. Later in the month, ITV revealed that unless it moves the News At Ten to an earlier time it will not be able to meet its audience targets. Many politicians and spokespeople, including Prime Minister Tony Blair, voiced their opposition to the idea.
• ITV also announced a new look and logo, encompassing the theme: TV From The Heart. The group also secured exclusive rights to all the James Bond films in a deal with MGM Television, and boosted its programme budget.
• Lastly, the city-based television channel, Channel One, closed following poor subscription levels. Its closure followed the death of DMGT’s chairman, Viscount Rothermere earlier that week.

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