Programmes
The real soap operas, EastEnders and Coronation Street dominated the top ratings as usual during May, with ITV’s flagship production stealing back dominance following the success of the Phil Mitchell storyline on the other side. Coronation Street gained the top spot for three out of the four weeks, with top audiences ranging between 13 and 15m. EastEnders grabbed the top spot in the remaining week, but managed an audience of less than 13m.
Meanwhile the battle of the real life as a soap opera programmes began at the end of the month, with the launch of Channel 4’s second series of Big Brother and ITV’s rival Survivor. Pundits expected this to be the ratings fight of the summer, but having kicked off with an audience of some 3m short of the expected 10m on its opening episode, the jewel in ITV’s summer crown has failed to build the expected audience and has had its weekly output cut. Big Brother, meanwhile, backed with an snazzier house, better website and new audience winners including continuous footage on E4 is building rapidly on the 3.57m it gained on its opening episode, and looks set to bring home the bacon for Channel 4 once again.
Viewing The major terrestrial channels once again saw year on year falls in viewing hours and minutes during May. BBC1 lost a sizeable 4% of its hours and minutes, but ITV suffered more, losing 12.4%. Channel 4 and Channel 5 followed suit, with only BBC2 amongst the terrestrials seeing an increase, of 2%. Non-terrestrial channels continue to build their viewing, this month the increase year on year was 15%.
| Month | BBC1 | BBC2 | ITV | C4/S4C | Channel 5 | Others |
| May-2001 | 6:00 | 2:36 | 6:15 | 2:22 | 1:22 | 4:27 |
| May-2000 | 6:15 | 2:33 | 7:08 | 2:26 | 1:25 | 3:52 |
| % Change | -4.0 | 2.0 | -12.4 | -2.7 | -3.5 | 15.0 |
Change in viewing share was not dramatic during May. Once again, BBC1 and ITV saw their shares decrease, by 0.4 and 3.0 percentage points respectively.
BBC2 saw an increase of 0.5 percentage points, and while the non-terrestrial channels increased their veiwing share, it was only by 3 percentage points. The viewing shares of Channels 4 and 5 remained more or less unchanged.
| Month | BBC1 | BBC2 | ITV | C4/S4C | Channel 5 | Others |
| May-2001 | 26.1 | 11.3 | 27.1 | 10.2 | 6.0 | 19.3 |
| May-2000 | 26.5 | 10.8 | 30.1 | 10.3 | 6.0 | 16.3 |
| % Point Change | -0.4 | 0.5 | -3.0 | -0.1 | 0.0 | 3.0 |
Non-terrestrial channels saw increases in share across all the ITV franchise areas during May, increases of between 2.5 and 5.3% bringing the channels’ share to around 20% in all areas except the West Country, where it stands at 12.4%.
The terrestrial channels fared less well during the month, with BBC1 and ITV seeing decreased shares across the board, and the other terrestrial channels no dramatic upward movement.
| 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) | 26.7 | -0.6 | 11.6 | 0.1 | 24.7 | -2.5 | 10.3 | 0.0 | 7.1 | 0.3 | 19.6 | 2.6 |
| Midlands (Central) | 24.7 | -0.3 | 10.7 | 0.4 | 27.1 | -2.8 | 9.9 | -0.2 | 7.4 | -0.8 | 20.2 | 3.6 |
| North West (Granada) | 25.0 | 0.1 | 10.9 | 0.7 | 27.2 | -3.3 | 9.1 | -0.1 | 6.3 | 0.1 | 21.5 | 2.6 |
| Yorkshire | 24.8 | -1.5 | 10.8 | -0.1 | 29.0 | -3.5 | 10.6 | 0.1 | 6.5 | -0.3 | 18.3 | 5.3 |
| Central/North Scotland | 23.1 | -0.7 | 10.3 | 0.9 | 27.2 | -1.8 | 10.2 | -0.6 | 7.3 | -0.2 | 21.9 | 2.4 |
| Wales & West (HTV) | 27.7 | -0.9 | 10.8 | -0.5 | 26.4 | -2.9 | 8.2 | -1.3 | 4.3 | 0.3 | 22.6 | 5.3 |
| South & South East & Channel Islands | 27.5 | -0.3 | 12.9 | 0.2 | 27.1 | -4.3 | 11.5 | 0.4 | 1.6 | 0.2 | 19.3 | 3.8 |
| North East (Tyne Tees) | 24.6 | -0.4 | 10.7 | 0.7 | 26.9 | -3.6 | 10.2 | 1.1 | 6.9 | 0.0 | 20.8 | 2.4 |
| East (Anglia TV) | 25.3 | -2.7 | 10.8 | 0.0 | 27.8 | -2.7 | 10.0 | 0.2 | 4.1 | 0.4 | 22.1 | 4.9 |
| South West (West Country) | 31.4 | -0.3 | 13.6 | 0.2 | 28.1 | -3.4 | 12.0 | 0.1 | 2.5 | -0.6 | 12.4 | 4.2 |
| Ulster (UTV) | 23.1 | -0.9 | 9.9 | 1.5 | 28.9 | -3.9 | 8.9 | -0.4 | 3.5 | -0.3 | 25.7 | 3.9 |
| Border | 23.1 | -2.3 | 10.8 | -0.5 | 32.7 | -0.9 | 10.3 | -0.3 | 2.9 | 0.4 | 20.1 | 3.5 |
Ratings
BBC1’s ratings did well, this month, in contrast to other viewing figures (see above). Increases were seen across all categories, but especially in Housewives with Children, up 0.8 percentage points and ABC1 Adults, also up 0.8. Terrestrial rival ITV saw the opposite effect, with decreased ratings across the board, in particular for Women, Housewives with Children and ABC1 Adults, which all dropped 1.7 percentage points.
| 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 | 9.9 | 0.2 | 11.1 | 0.3 | 10.1 | 0.1 | 12.0 | 0.5 | 12.6 | 0.5 | 11.6 | 0.8 | 11.3 | 0.8 |
| BBC2 | Mon-Sun | 4.0 | -0.2 | 4.6 | -0.2 | 4.7 | -0.3 | 4.4 | -0.2 | 5.1 | -0.2 | 3.1 | -0.5 | 4.9 | -0.5 |
| ITV | Mon-Sun | 11.5 | -1.3 | 12.7 | -1.4 | 11.0 | -1.0 | 14.4 | -1.7 | 14.9 | -1.6 | 13.6 | -1.7 | 10.4 | -1.7 |
| Channel 4 | Mon-Sun | 3.8 | 0.0 | 4.3 | 0.1 | 3.9 | 0.1 | 4.6 | 0.0 | 4.9 | 0.0 | 5.0 | 0.8 | 4.5 | 0.8 |
| Channel 5 | Mon-Sun | 2.8 | -0.1 | 3.1 | -0.2 | 3.2 | -0.3 | 3.0 | -0.1 | 3.5 | -0.2 | 2.8 | 0.2 | 2.8 | 0.2 |
Subscribers can access the Television database by selecting “Television” from the drop-down box at the top of this page
