TV Viewing Round Up – March 2000
Programmes This month was a pretty sparse one for top notch programmes, with BBC1’s Monarch of the Glen proving to be one of the few successful new television series. Viewing figures for the rural drama hovered around the 8 million mark throughout March, with consolidated share of viewing around 30%. The good performance of the aforementioned programme reflects badly on BBC1’s latest comedy offering Cry Wolf, which started with an audience of with 7.41 million and then started losing viewers week on week (BBC1 eventually moved the programme to a late night slot).
The return of Celebrity Ready Steady Cook proved to be popular with viewers, despite being up against regular Champion’s League matches. The edition broadcast on March 1 even achieved a higher audience total than Manchester United’s match against Bordeaux, shown on the same night, with figures of 8.6 million and 8.49 million respectively.
Programmes noted as doing well during the month of March include: ITV’s wartime drama Monsignor Renard which had 10.56 million viewers; the opening episode of Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) which attracted 10.63 million viewers (although the latest viewing figures show the programme only attracting 6.09 million); one-off drama Seeing Red with 12.34 million viewers and Ross Kemp’s ITV debut in Hero of the Hour, watched by 11.22 million people.
Viewing ITV’s year on year average hours and minutes total fell drastically this month, mainly due to the strong line up of programmes the station showed last March to launch the new peaktime schedule. During March ITV was watched on average for seven hours and fifty-two minutes, compared to nine hours and two minutes in March 1999 (a fall of 12.9%).
With no let up in the growth of non-terrestrial stations (Others), there continues to be improvements in year on year viewing totals. Average hours and minutes for Others rose from three hours and twenty-six minutes in March 1999 to three hours and fifty-eight minutes in March 2000 (up 15.5%).
| Month | BBC1 | BBC2 | ITV | C4/S4C | Channel 5 | Others |
| Mar-2000 | 7:02 | 2:45 | 7:52 | 2:40 | 1:28 | 3:58 |
| Mar-1999 | 7:21 | 2:40 | 9:02 | 2:35 | 1:20 | 3:26 |
| % Change | -4.3 | 3.1 | -12.9 | 3.2 | 10.0 | 15.5 |
Only ITV and BBC1 recorded falls in year on year viewing share, the former more considerably than the latter. ITV slumps 3.56 percentage points on March 1999, while BBC1 slips by 0.49 year on year.
Channel 4/S4C manages the best year on year performance amongst terrestrial stations (up 0.62 percentage points), while Others rises the most overall (up 2.37 points).
| Month | BBC1 | BBC2 | ITV | C4/S4C | Channel 5 | Others |
| Mar-2000 | 27.31 | 10.66 | 30.57 | 10.38 | 5.69 | 15.40 |
| Mar-1999 | 27.80 | 10.18 | 34.13 | 9.76 | 5.10 | 13.03 |
| % Point Change | -0.49 | 0.48 | -3.56 | 0.62 | 0.59 | 2.37 |
ITV had a bad March with all franchise areas recording drops in year on year viewing share. The worst affected region was North West, falling 5.2 percentage points year on year to 31.2%.
The best year on year increase is once again Others, which increases by 5.5 percentage points in the North East region, to now stand at 17.7%
| Franchise Area | BBC1 | YoY Point Ch | BBC2 | YoY Point Ch | ITV | YoY Point Ch | C4/S4C | YoY Point Ch | Channel 5 | YoY Point Ch | Others | YoY Point Ch |
| London (Wkdy & Wknd) | 27.9 | -0.5 | 11.0 | 0.1 | 27.2 | -2.9 | 10.3 | 0.8 | 6.4 | 0.6 | 17.2 | 1.9 |
| Midlands (Central) | 25.9 | -0.7 | 10.4 | 0.6 | 30.5 | -3.4 | 9.4 | 0.5 | 7.5 | 0.4 | 16.3 | 2.5 |
| North West (Granada) | 25.7 | -0.5 | 9.5 | 0.3 | 31.2 | -5.2 | 9.4 | -0.3 | 5.9 | 1.3 | 18.3 | 4.4 |
| Yorkshire | 27.3 | 0.1 | 10.4 | 0.2 | 32.9 | -3.0 | 10.8 | 1.2 | 6.5 | 0.9 | 12.1 | 0.6 |
| Central/North Scotland | 24.7 | -1.0 | 8.7 | 0.1 | 29.4 | -3.2 | 11.3 | 0.1 | 7.5 | 1.2 | 18.5 | 2.8 |
| Wales & West (HTV) | 32.0 | 1.5 | 10.3 | 0.0 | 29.0 | -4.4 | 9.2 | 0.3 | 3.9 | -0.5 | 15.7 | 3.2 |
| South & South East & Channel Islands | 29.5 | 0.1 | 12.5 | 0.2 | 32.8 | -2.1 | 10.8 | 0.9 | 1.3 | 0.2 | 13.2 | 0.8 |
| North East (Tyne Tees) | 26.1 | -1.0 | 9.4 | 0.2 | 31.1 | -4.4 | 9.5 | -0.4 | 6.2 | 0.2 | 17.7 | 5.5 |
| East (Anglia TV) | 27.8 | -1.1 | 11.1 | 0.6 | 30.9 | -3.2 | 10.4 | 1.3 | 3.7 | 1.1 | 16.2 | 1.6 |
| South West (West Country) | 34.3 | 1.7 | 12.9 | 0.5 | 30.7 | -3.2 | 11.8 | 1.0 | 3.0 | 0.5 | 7.3 | -0.5 |
| Ulster (UTV) | 22.6 | -0.2 | 8.4 | -0.1 | 34.9 | -4.4 | 9.9 | 0.1 | 3.7 | 0.2 | 20.6 | 4.4 |
| Border | 26.7 | -1.2 | 10.9 | 1.7 | 35.4 | -3.7 | 10.7 | -0.4 | 2.9 | 0.5 | 13.3 | 2.8 |
Ratings The absence of blockbuster movies like The Specialist and Goldeneye along with lower viewing figures for Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, means ITV’s year on year ratings take a tumble. All audience categories by at least three percentage points, with Housewives with children falling most (down four percentage points compared to March 1999).
BBC2 and Channel 4 jointly share the biggest increase in year on year network ratings between the 8pm and 11pm time period, up 0.5 percentage points for the ABC1 Adults category.
| Station | Day | Adults | YoY Ch | Men | YoY Ch | Women | YoY Ch | Hwives | YoY Ch | Hswvs/Ch | YoY Ch | ABC1 Adults | YoY Ch |
| BBC1 | Mon-Sun | 12.3 | -0.3 | 10.9 | -0.2 | 13.7 | -0.3 | 14.2 | -0.2 | 12.8 | -1.2 | 12.5 | 0 |
| BBC2 | Mon-Sun | 4.8 | 0.5 | 4.9 | 0.6 | 4.6 | 0.3 | 5.2 | 0.5 | 3.9 | 0.0 | 5.3 | 0.5 |
| ITV | Mon-Sun | 15.9 | -3.1 | 14.1 | -3.1 | 17.6 | -3.1 | 18.4 | -3.0 | 16.6 | -4.0 | 13.6 | -3.2 |
| Channel 4 | Mon-Sun | 3.9 | 0.3 | 3.7 | 0.3 | 4.2 | 0.3 | 4.5 | 0.3 | 4.5 | 0.5 | 4.2 | 0.5 |
| Channel 5 | Mon-Sun | 3.1 | 0.3 | 3.3 | 0.4 | 2.9 | 0.2 | 2.9 | -0.2 | 3.4 | 1.0 | 2.2 | 0.2 |
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