Digital Television Round-Up – October 2004
All five terrestrial TV channels saw a decline in weekly viewing share during October, with BBC One and Two bearing the brunt of the downturn, losing 1.7 and 1.1% points respectively.
BBC Two’s slip in viewing share pushes it below the 10% mark, a situation which the Corporation will be keen to remedy in the typically lucrative run up to Christmas. Earlier this month the BBC outlined its Christmas schedule, packed with blockbuster family movies to pile pressure on commercial rivals during the holiday period (see BBC Brings Out Big Guns For Christmas Ratings War).
ITV’s viewing share also suffered during October, losing 0.6% points in all homes as media commentators continued to level criticism at the broadcaster over the quality of its programming. Former BBC director general Greg Dyke recently hit out at ITV, accusing its senior management of being preoccupied with generating profit at the expense of creating quality programming (see Dyke Blasts ITV Over Poor Programmes And Rising Profit).
Elsewhere Channel 4’s viewing share also lost 0.6% points year on year, a slip which could be remedied by the broadcaster’s increased programming budget for factual and political content next year.
A seven-figure financial boost will more than double the number of Dispatches programmes in Channel 4’s 2005 schedule, increasing its run from 12 programmes a year to 28. The investment follows criticism by Ofcom of the broadcaster’s public service content earlier this year (see Channel 4 Boosts PSB Output With Dispatches Investment). Five fared better than its terrestrial rivals during October, but still saw a decrease of 0.4% in its weekly viewing share. The broadcaster recently saw merger talks with Channel 4 collapse, with reports suggesting that the two companies were unable to agree on how much of the combined business’ profits should be given to each group of shareholders (see Channel 4 Walks Out On Merger Talks With Five).
The BBC fared better in digital homes during October, although BBC One again saw the largest dip in weekly viewing share, losing 0.4% points, while BBC Two lost 0.1% points in the same period. Results for rival terrestrial broadcasters were also disappointing, with only Five managing to avoid a decline by staying level at 5.18%.
The BBC’s decline could be remedied amongst digital homes with an increased focus on interactive content by the Corporation. According to BBC chairman Michael Grade, the broadcaster is committed to creating a vibrant interactive television market, and hoping to retain viewers with bonus content in the same vein as that provided during this year’s Olympics (see Interactive Olympics Draws Millions To BBC).
Elsewhere ITV saw its viewing share dip by 0.1% points as it prepared to launch its third entertainment channel, ITV3. The channel has put in a strong performance so far, with figures for its first week of operation showing it notched up an impressive share of viewing and outperformed rivals in terms of viewing (see Figures Show ITV3 Getting Off To Flying Start).
Terrestrial broadcasters continued to see more success in Freeview homes than in Sky households, due mainly to the lack of choice afforded to Freeview viewers in comparison to Sky’s plethora of channels which put pressure on terrestrial broadcasters’ audiences.
The BBC continued to be the best performing terrestrial broadcaster on both Freeview and Sky platforms, with BBC One notching up a 20.88% share in Freeview homes and 13.24% in Sky households.
Other channels continued to dominate the viewing habits of Sky Digital customers, with a share of 41.34%, while their share amongst Freeview homes was just 17.02% owing to the lack of multi-channel operators on the platform.