TV Viewing Round Up – August 1999
Programmes With no major new series starting in August, a number of special one-off programmes littered the schedules of the major terrestrial channels. The heavily publicised In Excess: The Death of Michael Hutchence managed to pull in 3.13 million viewers for Channel 4, while ITV’s An Unsuitable Job For A Woman had 6.31 million viewers tuning in and the Cook Report Special was watched by 6.98 million.
Good performances from British athletes at this year’s World Athletics Championships helped BBC1 and BBC2 to achieved strong audience totals. The highest audience for BBC2’s coverage was the 5.21 million who watched Paula Radcliffe win a silver medal in the 10,000 metres. While the semi final heats for the 400 metres attracted BBC1’s biggest audience, 7.38 million.
Viewing Despite the fact that BBC2 had the majority coverage of the World Championships, the channel recorded a 9.5% year on year decrease in its hours and minutes total. The best year on year performance comes again from Channel 5, which increased its hours and minutes total by 18.8%
Hours & Minutes
| Month | BBC1 | BBC2 | ITV | C4/S4C | Channel 5 | Others |
| Aug-99 | 6:43 | 2:40 | 7:00 | 2:35 | 1:20 | 3:43 |
| Aug-98 | 6:26 | 2:56 | 6:39 | 2:35 | 1:07 | 3:13 |
| % Change | 4.3 | -9.5 | 5.3 | 0.0 | 18.8 | 15.2 |
The earlier start to the new football season appears to have helped push share of viewing for non-terrestrial stations up. Year on year figures show that Other viewing is up 1.4 points on August 1998, the next best performance comes from Channel 5 which rises 0.5 points on last year’s figures.
Viewing Share
| BBC1 | BBC2 | ITV | C4/S4C | Channel 5 | Others | |
| Aug-98 | 28.2 | 12.8 | 29.0 | 11.2 | 4.9 | 14.0 |
| Aug-99 | 28.0 | 11.2 | 29.2 | 10.8 | 5.4 | 15.4 |
| % Point Change | -0.2 | -1.6 | 0.2 | -0.4 | 0.5 | 1.4 |
Channel 5 continues to improve its share of viewing by recording rises in all but one ITV region. Despite the fact that the station gained big audiences for its majority coverage of the week-long World Championships, BBC2’s share of viewing fell in all ITV regions.
Share by Franchise Area
| Franchise | BBC1 | YoY Point Ch | BBC2 | YoY Point Ch | C4/S4C | YoY Point Ch | Channel 5 | YoY Point Ch | ITV | YoY Point Ch | Others | YoY Point Ch |
| London (Wkdy & Wknd) | 28.0 | -0.8 | 12.0 | -0.8 | 10.3 | -0.9 | 5.5 | 0.6 | 25.6 | -1.1 | 18.5 | 2.9 |
| Midlands (Central) | 26.0 | -0.2 | 10.7 | -3.0 | 10.9 | 1.1 | 8.1 | 1.4 | 27.4 | -0.4 | 17.7 | 0.9 |
| North West (Granada) | 26.3 | -1.1 | 10.7 | -1.2 | 10.7 | -0.2 | 5.0 | 0.3 | 30.8 | 0.0 | 16.2 | 2.0 |
| Yorkshire | 27.9 | 0.4 | 10.5 | -2.5 | 11.4 | 0.3 | 7.2 | 1.9 | 31.5 | 0.2 | 11.5 | -0.1 |
| Central/North Scotland | 26.7 | n/a | 11.6 | n/a | 10.1 | n/a | 7.0 | n/a | 27.7 | n/a | 16.6 | n/a |
| Wales & West (HTV) | 31.4 | 1.1 | 11.1 | -3.2 | 10.5 | 0.2 | 4.1 | -0.3 | 28.6 | 1.1 | 14.6 | 1.2 |
| South & South East & Channel Islands | 29.9 | -0.3 | 12.1 | -3.0 | 11.0 | -1.2 | 1.2 | 0.4 | 32.0 | 2.8 | 13.8 | 1.4 |
| North East (Tyne Tees) | 26.5 | -1.1 | 11.0 | -0.8 | 10.2 | -1.6 | 6.1 | 2.4 | 28.2 | -0.4 | 18.0 | 1.6 |
| East (Anglia TV) | 28.9 | -1.0 | 11.7 | -1.1 | 10.1 | -1.0 | 3.3 | 0.6 | 29.9 | 0.5 | 16.4 | 1.9 |
| South West (West Country) | 33.4 | 0.4 | 13.4 | -0.5 | 12.8 | -0.8 | 3.0 | 0.8 | 31.1 | 1.1 | 6.4 | -0.9 |
| Ulster (UTV) | 24.2 | 1.4 | 9.1 | -0.9 | 8.7 | -2.1 | 3.6 | 0.7 | 34.5 | 1.2 | 19.5 | -0.2 |
| Border | 28.7 | 1.9 | 10.4 | -0.2 | 10.6 | -0.7 | 3.7 | 1.3 | 35.7 | -1.2 | 11.5 | -1.1 |
Ratings ITV had a good month ratings-wise, with all audiences for both weekday and weekend above the 1998 totals. The best year on year performance came from weekend ratings for Men, 2.5 points up on August 1998.
The return of top rated programmes, such as Ally McBeal and Friends, has done little to improve weekday peak time ratings for Channel 4. The only audience to show an increase year on year ratings figures was Men, up 0.1 points on last year.
Network Ratings – 8pm to 11pm
| Station | Day | ABC1 Adults | YoY Ch | Adults | YoY Ch | Hswvs | YoY Ch | Hswvs/Ch | YoY Ch | Men | YoY Ch | Women | YoY Ch |
| BBC1 | Mon-Fri | 11.6 | -0.7 | 12.1 | -0.3 | 13.9 | -0.6 | 12.4 | -0.3 | 10.8 | 0.1 | 13.3 | -0.7 |
| BBC1 | Sat-Sun | 11.4 | 0.0 | 12.0 | 0.5 | 13.4 | 0.6 | 12.6 | 0.5 | 11.0 | 0.1 | 13.0 | 0.8 |
| BBC2 | Mon-Fri | 5.2 | 0.1 | 4.7 | 0.0 | 5.2 | 0.0 | 3.7 | 0.2 | 4.7 | -0.1 | 4.7 | 0.1 |
| BBC2 | Sat-Sun | 4.3 | 0.7 | 4.0 | 0.4 | 4.2 | 0.3 | 2.3 | -0.1 | 4.4 | 0.6 | 3.6 | 0.3 |
| ITV | Mon-Fri | 11.2 | 0.3 | 13.0 | 0.6 | 15.2 | 0.9 | 11.5 | 0.1 | 11.4 | 0.1 | 14.4 | 1.1 |
| ITV | Sat-Sun | 13.7 | 1.5 | 15.1 | 1.9 | 17.3 | 1.6 | 13.1 | 1.9 | 13.6 | 2.5 | 16.4 | 1.3 |
| C4 | Mon-Fri | 4.4 | 0.0 | 4.3 | -0.1 | 4.8 | -0.2 | 4.3 | -0.6 | 4.0 | 0.1 | 4.6 | -0.2 |
| C4 | Sat-Sun | 3.3 | -0.1 | 3.2 | -0.1 | 3.5 | -0.2 | 2.8 | 0.1 | 3.4 | 0.0 | 3.0 | -0.3 |
| Channel 5 | Mon-Fri | 2.7 | 1.0 | 1.9 | -0.5 | 3.0 | 0.3 | 2.3 | 0.2 | 2.6 | 0.1 | 2.6 | 0.2 |
| Channel 5 | Sat-Sun | 2.4 | 0.8 | 1.7 | -0.5 | 2.7 | 0.1 | 1.9 | -0.2 | 2.4 | 0.2 | 2.4 | 0.1 |
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