Digital Viewing Round-Up – December 2001

The latest BARB data on digital viewing shows that year on year ITV1 saw its share of viewing in all homes fall in December, from just under 30% share in December 2000 to just over 25% in December 2001. BBC1, which recently claimed victory over ITV1 in the Christmas day ratings (see BBC Claims Ratings Victory Over ITV), saw its share of viewing in all homes increase year on year from 26.48% in December 2000 to 27.9% in December 2001.

BBC2 and Channel 5 saw modest increases in their share of viewing in all homes during December, but it was the non-terrestrial channels which saw the biggest year on year increase with their collective share of viewing in all homes rising from 17.3% to 20.38%.

In digital homes non-terrestrial channels saw their share of viewing decrease year on year, from 48.1% in December 2000 to 45.1% in December 2001. BBC1, which saw its share of viewing increase in digital homes from 18.2% in 2000 to 20.7% in 2001, and Channel 5, which grew its share from its December 2000 average of 2.83% to 3.68%, were the main beneficiaries. ITV1 saw its share of viewing in digital homes fall year on year during December, from 19.6% in 2000 to 18.2% in 2001.

BARB’s figures show that in ITV Digital homes Channel 5 is gaining ground on its closest rivals, Channel 4 and BBC2, as its share of viewing edges towards 5%.

Despite finally reaching an agreement with BSkyB concerning the carriage of ITV1 and ITV2 on the Sky Digital platform (see Digital Truce For ITV And Sky), ITV1’s share of viewing in Sky homes during December remained relatively static at around 18%. However, ITV1’s share of viewing in ITV Digital homes was up on November’s figure and stood at around 20% in December 2001.

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