Television Viewing Round-Up – September 2006

September saw viewing shares fall year on year across most terrestrial channels, with ITV1 and Channel Four both seeing dips of over 1.5 percentage points.

In digital homes, BBC channels fared well while ITV1 and Channel Four both saw dips in share, whilst Five and Multichannel viewing remained static.

ITV1 saw its viewing share fall year on year in September as the broadcaster continued to struggle to match BBC One in the ratings. However, as the month progressed, its share gradually increased.

BBC One’s viewing remained static year on year, commanding 22.5% of all viewing in TV homes over the course of the month.

The continual Saturday night battle raged between BBC One and ITV1, as BBC One’s How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? finished mid-month (see Maria Attracts 7.5 Million Viewers) providing a window for ITV1 to dominate for the last two weekends of the month with X-Factor (see BBC One and ITV1 In Weekend Viewing Battle).

Channel Four had a fall in share, dipping by 1.5 percentage points to 8.6% overall share, while BBC Two remained at around 8.1% share.

Multichannel’s share of viewing grew by 4.2 percentage points, taking over 35% share during September.

The BBC’s channels both saw increases in viewing share in digital homes, as BBC One increased by nearly 1 percentage point year on year and BBC Two increased by 0.6 percentage points.

ITV1, meanwhile, following the trend within all TV viewing homes and dipped by 0.6 percentage points year on year, receiving 18% share of viewing.

Five’s viewing remained relatively static, with 5% share in digital homes. The channel announced the biggest marketing campaign in its history to launch the new digital channels Five Life and Five US. The poster for Five US received three complaints after the posters had only been up for a day, with people claiming its copy “Nothing good ever came out of America” was offensive to Americans (see Five Unveils Biggest Marketing Campaign In Channel’s History).

Multichannel viewing also remained static, commanding 44% share of viewing with digital homes.

BBC One remained the terrestrial channel of choice in both Freeview and Sky homes in September, however ITV1’s share in Sky homes was not far behind, at 16.1% versus BBC One’s 16.8% share of viewing.

Due to the larger channel choice available, multichannel options remained the most popular choice in both Freeview and Sky homes, with 53% of the viewing share in Sky homes dominated by satellite channels and nearly a third in Freeview homes.

Data to form this report can be found in the Television database on mediatel.co.uk within the “Weekly – Analysis by Platform” section. For any assistance please contact the helpdesk on 020 7439 7575.

BARB: www.barb.co.uk