TV Viewing Round Up – February 2001
Programmes
The big television highlight of this month was the unveiling of the final five members of the Popstars group. Having gone through the excruciating audition process, which featured some singing talent not seen since the heyday of Linda McCartney in Wings and surviving Nasty Nigel’s fairly nasty putdowns, 3 February saw two programmes devoted to three judge’s decision process. The first programme (shown at 6.45pm) attracted 11.35m, while the second programme (at 9.15pm), which revealed the final group line-up as Danny, Noel, Myleene, Kym and Suzanne, was watched by 12.36m people.
The Brit Awards, which featured a performance from the newly christened Hear’Say attracted 8.62m (nearly a million less than the previous year’s total). Other shows that did well this month include: An Audience With Ricky Martin, watched by 8.87m people; the terrestrial premiere of Bean, with an audience of 8.36m and London’s Burning which had a highest audience of 10.75m.
Viewing
For a second month running BBC2 saw gains in average viewing, increasing 13% in a year on year analysis to reach an average of 3hrs 20mins. Non terrestrial channels continued to build their viewing strength, growing by 20.5% year on year to an average 5 hrs. Channel 4 suffered the largest drop in viewing time, decreasing 9.2% to 2hrs 38mins.
| Month | BBC1 | BBC2 | ITV | C4/S4C | Channel 5 | Others |
| Feb-2001 | 7:18 | 3:20 | 7:53 | 2:38 | 1:32 | 5:00 |
| Feb-2000 | 7:28 | 2:57 | 8:08 | 2:54 | 1:37 | 4:09 |
| % Change | -2.2 | 13.0 | -3.0 | -9.2 | -5.2 | 20.5 |
| Month | BBC1 | BBC2 | ITV | C4/S4C | Channel 5 | Others |
| Feb-2001 | 26.4 | 12.0 | 28.5 | 9.5 | 5.5 | 18.1 |
| Feb-2000 | 27.4 | 10.8 | 29.9 | 10.7 | 5.9 | 15.2 |
| % Point Change | -1.0 | 1.2 | -1.4 | -1.2 | -0.4 | 2.9 |
BBC1 saw falls yet again across the majority of franchise areas, with the only saving grace being Central/N.Scotlands tiny 0.3 percentage point change year on year. The biggest loss of viewing share was seen in the Border area, where share fell 4.3 percentage points to 23.9%.
There were similar stories at both ITV and Channel 4, but smaller channels BBC2 and Channel 5 gained some respectable increases year on year. BBC2’s best franchise area in terms of viewing share was South West, where a gain of 0.4 percentage points took it to 14.3%, while Channel 5 did best in the Midlands, where it gained 7.5% share.
| 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) | 26.6 | -1.1 | 12.0 | 0.7 | 25.2 | -0.4 | 9.6 | -1.0 | 6.4 | -0.2 | 20.1 | 1.8 |
| Midlands (Central) | 25.6 | -0.4 | 11.9 | 1.2 | 28.2 | -0.4 | 9.1 | -0.8 | 7.5 | -0.4 | 17.7 | 0.8 |
| North West (Granada) | 25.1 | -1.0 | 11.2 | 1.1 | 29.0 | -2.2 | 8.5 | -1.4 | 5.1 | -1.0 | 21.0 | 4.4 |
| Yorkshire | 24.9 | -2.8 | 12.4 | 1.7 | 31.6 | -0.7 | 9.7 | -1.3 | 6.2 | -0.5 | 15.3 | 3.7 |
| Central/North Scotland | 25.1 | 0.3 | 11.2 | 2.0 | 28.1 | -0.5 | 9.8 | -1.8 | 6.9 | -0.7 | 19.0 | 0.8 |
| Wales & West (HTV) | 30.0 | -1.2 | 12.4 | 1.1 | 26.2 | -3.1 | 8.3 | -1.7 | 4.1 | 0.0 | 19.0 | 5.0 |
| South & South East & Channel Islands | 27.3 | -1.2 | 14.1 | 1.7 | 29.1 | -3.4 | 10.5 | -1.3 | 1.7 | 0.2 | 17.2 | 3.9 |
| North East (Tyne Tees) | 23.9 | -2.6 | 11.6 | 1.5 | 29.5 | -1.5 | 8.8 | -0.8 | 6.8 | 0.3 | 19.4 | 3.0 |
| East (Anglia TV) | 24.9 | -3.0 | 11.5 | 0.2 | 29.2 | -1.2 | 9.9 | -0.7 | 4.0 | 0.5 | 20.5 | 4.1 |
| South West (West Country) | 29.8 | -3.6 | 14.3 | 0.4 | 30.4 | 0.6 | 10.8 | -1.8 | 2.3 | -1.2 | 12.4 | 5.7 |
| Ulster (UTV) | 22.4 | -1.5 | 9.0 | 0.1 | 32.1 | -1.6 | 8.4 | -1.5 | 4.0 | 0.1 | 24.0 | 4.4 |
| Border | 23.9 | -4.3 | 11.0 | 0.0 | 34.4 | 1.5 | 9.7 | -1.6 | 2.8 | -0.3 | 18.2 | 4.7 |
Ratings
ITV had losses in some categories, but managed a 1.5% increase in both the housewives with children category and ABC1 Adults. In the same categories, BBC1 saw a year on year decrease of 2.1% for each. Channel 5 and Channel 4 showed the most worrying performances, with year on year drops across all categories.
| Station | Day | Individuals | YoY Ch | Adults | YoY Ch | Men | YoY Ch | Women | YoY Ch | Hwives | YoY Ch | Hswvs/Ch | YoY Ch | ABC1 Adults | YoY Ch |
| BBC1 | Mon-Sun | 11.2 | -0.3 | 12.5 | -0.1 | 11.3 | 0.5 | 13.6 | -0.7 | 14.3 | -0.3 | 12.4 | -2.1 | 12.8 | -2.1 |
| BBC2 | Mon-Sun | 4.3 | 0.0 | 4.9 | 0.0 | 5.0 | 0.1 | 4.8 | 0.0 | 5.4 | 0.0 | 4.2 | 0.3 | 5.5 | 0.3 |
| ITV | Mon-Sun | 14.7 | 0.4 | 16.2 | 0.3 | 14.2 | 0.4 | 18.0 | 0.2 | 18.5 | 0.0 | 16.7 | 1.5 | 13.6 | 1.5 |
| Channel 4 | Mon-Sun | 3.6 | -0.4 | 4.1 | -0.3 | 4.0 | -0.3 | 4.1 | -0.5 | 4.5 | -0.5 | 4.3 | -0.5 | 4.5 | -0.5 |
| Channel 5 | Mon-Sun | 2.7 | -0.4 | 3.0 | -0.4 | 3.2 | -0.6 | 2.8 | -0.2 | 3.4 | -0.2 | 2.7 | -0.3 | 2.7 | -0.3 |
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