Digital Television Round-Up – January 2001

BARB has released viewing figures for digital television in January. In the all households category, a year on year analysis reveals that Other channels (non-terrestrial channels) have increased their average weekly audience share, reflecting the increasing consumer uptake of non-terrestrial TV platforms. The resultant losses among the terrestrial channels were mainly seen at BBC1. Channel 5 remained steady, and while Channel 4 and ITV both slipped slightly, both held onto similar shares year on year.

In digital households, Other channels continue to command around half of all viewing. However, this lead has slipped year on year. ITV and BBC1 have not benefited from this. Increases were instead seen at the smaller terrestrial channels. BBC2 and Channel 5 both added to their average weekly share year on year, while Channel 4 remained steady.

Comparing the performances of the various channels in Sky Digital households as oppose to ONdigital households, it is clear that Other channels do better in Sky homes. The terrestrial channels on the ON platform benefit more or less equally from this and in both cases the distribution of those viewers not watching Other channels reflects the distribution among the channels in All homes, with BBC1 and ITV dominating. ITV’s continued lack of carriage deal on Sky could be part of the reason for Other channels’ popularity in Sky homes.

Subscribers can access more digital viewing figures in the Television database by selecting “Television” from the drop-down box at the top of this page.