Growth In Multichannel Viewing Hits Terrestrial Channels
The increasing popularity of multichannel television is continuing to put pressure on the UK’s main terrestrial channels, which are having to fight harder to maintain their share of viewing, according to the latest Trends In Television report from the IPA.
The figures show that non-terrestrial channels are still gaining ground in the battle for viewers, with their combined audience share rising to just over 24% in the third quarter of 2003, up from 22.6% in the same period last year.
Non-terrestrial channels also took the largest peaktime share of the lucrative 16 to 34 year-old audience in the three months to September, commanding 25.5% of this key demographic, ahead of ITV with 22.4% and BBC1 with 23.6%.
A recent study from Continental Research shows that Freeview and growth of the Sky digital subscriber base has significantly boosted the market for multichannel services in this country, which now reach more than 10 million homes (see Digital TV Now Reaches More Than 10 Million UK Homes).
The growth of Freeview is expected to continue apace and reports suggest that the digital terrestrial television service could have been adopted by two million homes in the UK by the time it celebrates its first birthday at the end of this month (see Freeview Could Be In 2 Million Homes By First Birthday).
The Trends In Television reports also shows that ITV’s share of viewing continues to inch downwards with a slight 0.4% points year on year drop to 23.2% in the third quarter of 2003. Channel 4 suffered a modest dip during the same period to 10.1%, but Five saw its share of viewing increase by 0.2% points to 6.5%.
ITV is fighting hard to stem the decline in its share of viewing and Carlton and Granada recently announced a 7% increase in the channel’s network programme budget after the Government cleared the way for their £4.2 billion merger (see ITV Merger Leads To Increase In Programme Budget).
IPA: 020 7235 7020 www.ipa.co.uk
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