BBC Tops Charts For Rolling News Coverage In July

The nation’s rolling news services saw a surge of viewing last month, triggered by the Live 8 concerts, the announcement of London’s winning Olympic bid, the terror attacks on the capital and the IRA’s announcement of an end to its armed campaign.

The string of high-profile events saw the BBC’s rolling news channel, News 24, topping its rivals in terms of viewing, reaching 15 million viewers in July to account for 39% of the UK’s multi-channel homes.

Sky News reached 13 million viewers in the same period to achieve a 34% share; while ITV News reached 8.8 million viewers to achieve a 23% share.

The week of the London bombings saw News 24 achieve its highest viewing of the year, with 8.9 million people tuning in during the week ending 10 July compared with 8.3 million for Sky News and 4.5 million for ITV News.

Later in the month, the day of the attempted bombings in the capital saw 3.4 million people switch to News 24, while 3.1 million watched Sky News and 1.3 million opted for ITV News.

In the year to date, BBC News 24 has topped the rolling news channels every month, achieving an average monthly reach of 10.6 million. Sky News’ average reach is 9.5 million and ITV News’ average is 6 million.

In addition, News 24 currently averages 5 million viewers per week, compared with 4.6 million for Sky News and 2.3 million for ITV News.

Last month saw online measurement firm, Hitwise, reveal a surge of interest in news websites, with the BBC’s online operation the top news destination. The site ranked as the 6th most visited site in the UK on the day of the bombings, climbing from an overall rank of 15th the day before (see Terror Attacks Spark Visitor Surge To News Sites).

BBC: 020 8743 8000 www.bbc.co.uk