Feature: Channel 4 Is Good Friends With Comedy Shows
Last week the news emerged that a war is about to commence in the broadcasting world over the sitcom Friends. Rights to its seventh series and beyond will soon be up for grabs and ITV, Channel 4 and BSkyB all look set to fight for them. Recent data showing the amount of advertising revenue generated by comedy programmes gives some idea of the importance of the US show.
The data, compiled by CIA MediaLab/Admap, shows that Friends is by far the most popular television comedy for advertisers. Between August 1998 and July 1999 the series attracted almost £33 million of advertising revenue, an increase of almost 30% since last year. In distant second place another US sitcom, Frasier, took almost £15 million; ITV’s Tarrant on TV trailed in third place, generating £8 million of ad revenue.
Friends is currently broadcast on Channel 4 and Sky One, and it is these two channels which have the strongest comedy portfolios in terms of ad revenue. Advertisers spent £91 million on Channel 4 comedies over the last year. With Friends and Frasier it broadcasts six of the top ten comedy programmes in terms of ad revenue. Sky One has received almost £17 million from ads around its comedy shows over the past year and for UK Gold the genre is performing strongly – in the year to July ’99 ad revenue from comedy increased by 24%.
Despite having the strongest comedy portfolio in terms of ad revenue, Channel 4 does not have the highest-rating comedy show. So far this year Friends has trailed in second place after ITV’s Barbara which has attracted average audiences of over eight million; Friends on Channel 4 pulls average audiences of around four million. However, C4 does have a stronger comedy portfolio, with four of its programmes featuring in the top five comedy shows, by audience, shown on commercial channels so far this year.
Channel Four’s high comedy profile is matched by the percentage of its total ad revenue taken by comedy. In the year to July 1999, 16% of the station’s revenue was made by comedy shows. The strength of its comedy bodes well for E4, the new entertainment channel planned by C4. E4 will be broadcast from next year on cable, satellite and digital platforms.