TV Round-Up – May 1998
Revenue Agency estimates for May 1998 put total terrestrial TV ad revenue at £250.38 million, a rise year on year for all the channels but GMTV.
ITV’s total revenue was up 19% to £177.10 million, C4’s rose 16.1% to £54.00 million and C5’s once again saw the greatest relative gain – up 19.8% to £13.18 million. GMTV lost 9.8% to £6.10 million.
Amongst the ITV franchises, LWT faired exceptionally well as May had five weekends rather than the usual four. LWT’s share of ITV revenue was up 2.57% points to 13.35%. Central and Carlton suffered the greatest losses down 1.17% points to 15.70% and 0.86% points to 15.42% respectively.
Impacts As with last month all but Women showed increases in impacts for ITV year on year for May. Again, the biggest increase was with Housewives/Children up 8.2% to 3,908 impacts. Men also increased 7.3% to 9,629. Overall ITV Adults impacts were up 1.9% to 23,969.
Conversely, Channel 4 lost impacts across all audience categories. The greatest losses were Women (down 7.3% to 4,056) and Housewives (down 5.4% to 4,295). Impacts for all Adults on Channel 4 were down 5.2% to 7,166.
Channel 5 continues to improve in leaps and bounds with all audience categories showing impacts increases. Adults are up 55.5% to 2,858, and Women are up 61.3% to 1,597.
May Impacts Year on Year Comparisons
| IMPACTS | ||||||
| ITV Impacts | % Ch YoY | C4 Impacts | % Ch YoY | C5 Impacts | % Ch YoY | |
| Adults | 23,969 | 1.9 | 7,166 | -5.2 | 2,858 | 55.5 |
| Men | 9,629 | 7.3 | 3,109 | -2.2 | 1,261 | 48.7 |
| Women | 14,340 | -1.5 | 4,056 | -7.3 | 1,597 | 61.3 |
| Hwvs | 14,903 | 0.3 | 4,295 | -5.4 | 1,775 | 68.6 |
| Hwvs/Ch | 3,908 | 8.2 | 1,113 | -0.2 | 419 | 36.5 |
| ABC1 Adults | 8,716 | 2.4 | 2,928 | -2.2 | 932 | 44.9 |
Cost Per Thousands CPTs for ITV were up year on year for all audiences in May. The greatest increase in costs was for Women, up 20.8% to 1,497p. All Adults showed a 16.9% increase in CPT to 895p. Channel 4 reports even greater relative increases with Adults CPTs up 22.4% to 913p and Women up 25.2% to 1,613p. Channel 5 is still getting cheaper with all audience categories showing a drop in CPTs year on year. Adults CPTs for C5 were down 22.9% to 559p.
May CPTs Year on Year Comparisons
| CPTs | ||||||
| ITV CPT (p) | % Ch YoY | C4 CPT (p) | % Ch YoY | C5 CPT | % Ch YoY | |
| Adults | 895 | 16.9 | 913 | 22.4 | 559 | -22.9 |
| Men | 2,229 | 10.9 | 2,105 | 18.8 | 1,267 | -19.4 |
| Women | 1,497 | 20.8 | 1,613 | 25.2 | 1,000 | -25.7 |
| Hwvs | 1,440 | 18.6 | 1,523 | 22.7 | 900 | -28.9 |
| Hwvs/Ch | 5,491 | 10.0 | 5,880 | 16.3 | 3,808 | -12.2 |
| ABC1 Adults | 2,462 | 16.3 | 2,235 | 18.8 | 1,714 | -17.3 |
Viewing ITV’s share of viewing remained fairly steady year on year gaining 0.4% points to 32.2%. BBC1 lost a greater share, down 2.9% points to a viewing share of 28.1%. BBC2 and C4 both suffered slight losses and C5 gained 1.4% points taking its share of viewing to 4.1%. Cable/satellite’s share was up 1.9% points to 13.5%.
May Viewing Shares Year on Year Comparisons
| VIEWING | ||||||
| BBC1 | BBC2 | ITV | C4/S4C | Channel 5 | Others | |
| May-97 | 31 | 12 | 31.8 | 10.8 | 2.7 | 11.6 |
| May-98 | 28.1 | 11.9 | 32.2 | 10.2 | 4.1 | 13.5 |
| -2.9 | -0.1 | 0.4 | -0.6 | 1.4 | 1.9 |
Industry News BSkyB was snubbed by ITV at the beginning of the month after ITV said that it would not be allowing Sky to carry its channel’s on the satellite broadcaster’s digital service which launches this summer. A battle between the two is still being fought and BSkyB has appealed to the ITC to examine whether ITV has a duty to provide its programmes for Sky. A spokesperson for ITV said that it was an entirely terrestrial platform and had never intended to broadcast on satellite.
Sky was set back a second time when the Premier League announced that it would not be proceeding with plans to sell pay-per-view football games to Sky. Sky denied that this was the end of the matter as ‘there are still too many details to be discussed’.
The ITC told ITV that it could do better in terms of quality and diversity, particularly in the peak-time schedule. The Commission’s Annual Performance Review said that whilst drama was increasing and was of a high quality, entertainment and comedy were in decline.
Carlton Television was accused by The Guardian of having produced a documentary, The Connection, which contained faked footage and interviews. The ITC is to investigate these claims and, depending on the outcome of this investigation, could imposed sanctions on Carlton of anything from a fine to a revocation of the licence.
A survey by Western Media International found that the British public are more to actively avoid TV advertising in the digital age. The survey showed that ad avoidance is increasing across the main media.
ITV announced its plans for ITV2, the broadcaster’s digital terrestrial channel to be launched at the end of the year. Almost all the programme ideas announced were targeted at the 16-34 year old end of the market with an emphasis on sport, music and lifestyle.
A survey by Radio Rentals showed that only 5% of the UK population are aware that digital terrestrial television will be launching later this year.