Digital Round-Up: Non-Terrestrials Hold Onto 50% Share In Digital Homes

Digital television viewing figures from BARB told a very similar story for November as for October (see Digital Round-Up October 2000: ITV Makes Headway Across The Board), with non-terrestrial channels continuing to attract large shares of audiences in digital homes, while the terrestrial channels fight over the remainder.

Non-terrestrial channels continue to command just under 50% of viewing in digital homes, with ITV the most successful of the terrestrial channels in digital homes, commanding just under 30%. ITV’s gain appears to have been Channel 4’s loss on this platform recently, although during November, it held onto the 9.8% share also achieved during October. Channel 5, expected to benefit from a wide potential coverage on digital television, actually dropped slightly in its digital homes viewing share during the month, from 3.3% during October to 2.8% during November.

Comparing viewing patterns in Sky Digital and ONdigital homes, terrestrial channels are found to fare better in the latter as a rule, although this is the less widespread of the two platforms. BBC1 is an exception, achieving just under a 20% share of viewing on both platforms, but for ITV its lack of a carriage deal with Sky shows up in the figures, as nearly 25% of viewing in ONdigital homes goes to ITV, but only 17% in Sky Digital homes.

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