UK flag US flag FR flag BE flag
|

ITV Fails To Meet Peaktime Targets In Second Quarter

ITV Fails To Meet Peaktime Targets In Second Quarter

ITV has failed to hit its peaktime viewing target for the second quarter of the year, according to research compiled by the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA). The IPA’s Trends In Television report shows that ITV’s average share of the 1900-2230 hours peaktime slot came in at 37.5%; the Network’s target is to achieve an average of 39% for the whole year.

This drop in viewing share for ITV follows a boost in the first quarter of the year after the Network dropped its News At Ten bulletin and started running films and drama series in the 9-11pm slot (see New ITV Schedule Boosts Q1 Viewing Share). ITV peaktime share in Q1 stood at 40.9%. Perhaps even more worrying for advertisers is that amongst peaktime viewing, the share is lowest across the key ABC1 demographic group and highest amongst C2DEs.

As the table below shows, the figures for ABC1 Adults 16-34 and 35-54 are the lowest of all the audience categories. Patronage (the percentage of the TV population which tunes in to a given channel for at least three minutes a week) is also down for ITV from 91.7% in March to 88.1% during June; BBC1’s patronage for June was 89.2%.

Trends in Television TABLE 9 – ITV SHARE PEAK TIME (1900 – 2230)

Indivs Adults Adults ABC1 Adults C2DE Adults 16-34 Adults 35-54 Adults 55+ Adults 16-34 ABC1 Adults 35-54 ABC1 Adults 55+ ABC1 Adults 16-34 C2DE Adults 35-54 C2DE Adults 55+ C2DE
Qtr1 1998 38.2 38.6 35.0 41.2 34.5 36.1 43.2 31.6 33.4 39.5 36.9 38.7 45.5
Qtr2 1998 37.7 38.0 35.2 40.2 34.5 36.2 41.9 32.5 33.7 38.9 36.2 38.5 43.7
Qtr3 1998 37.1 37.4 34.5 39.5 34.0 34.7 41.8 31.8 32.4 38.6 35.8 36.7 43.6
Qtr4 1998 38.3 38.6 34.5 41.6 36.2 36.2 42.1 32.9 33.2 37.1 39.9 38.9 44.0
                           
Qtr1 1999 40.9 41.2 37.9 43.7 37.9 38.6 45.3 34.7 35.8 41.9 40.1 41.3 47.5
Qtr2 1999 37.5 37.8 34.2 40.5 36.7 35.8 40.0 33.9 33.0 35.7 38.9 38.4 42.7

 

Despite ITV’s decline in viewing share and patronage, the commercial network is still ahead of BBC1 in terms of overall viewing share. ITV took a total Q2 share of viewing of 30.4% compared to BBC1’s 28.2%. Again, though, this is 2.6% points lower for ITV than Q1 1999. Nevertheless, the average over the first two quarters of this year shows that ITV achieved 39.2%, higher than its 39.0% target.

BBC2 benefited from its seasonal second quarter lift in viewing which comes with the coverage of Wimbledon. BBC2’s overall viewing share came in at 11.6%, 1.1% points up on Q1. Channel 5 also did well, turning in a share of 5.4%, its first quarterly share of over 5%.

Institute of Practitioners in Advertising: 0171 235 7020

Media Jobs