TV Round-Up – December 1998

Revenue Estimates from agencies put total terrestrial TV ad revenue at £190.27 million for December 1998. ITV saw a 4.2% increase year on year in its total revenue which rose to £131.62 million in December 1998. Channel 4’s total ad revenue rose by 11.8% to £42.5 million, and Channel 5 enjoyed a rise of 39.4% on December 1997 to £11.15 million. GMTV continues to lose ad revenue, this time down by 12% year on year to £5 million. Estimates put satellite ad revenue at £26 million, an increase of 39.6% year on year.

Impacts ITV’s impacts for all Adults were down by 0.5% year on year in December coming in at 28,249. Small gains were made in each of the other audience categories, with ABC1 Adults up by 0.3%. Channel 4 increased its effectiveness across all audience types, notably Men which was up by 12%. Channel 5 continues to increase its delivery of ads to the audience with all categories up substantially year on year.

Costs Per Thousand CPTs for ITV continue to increase across all audience categories with ABC1 Adults up by 3.9%. Women reported the highest increase in costs, up by 6.0% . Channel 4 CPTs were up year on year for each category except Men which was down slightly and it is continuing to become cheaper to reach all audiences on Channel 5.

Viewing BBC1 won the battle against ITV in December coming in with a 31.2% share in viewing against the Network’s 30.9%. As usual Christmas Day went to BBC1 (see BBC1 Cleans Up On Christmas Day), possibly accounting for its nudge into the lead. Channel 4 managed to show a little growth in its overall viewing share in December up by 0.2%. C5 averaged 4.5% in this month and cable/satellite channels continue to eat into the terrestrials’ share, taking 12.7% of viewing.

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