Television Viewing Round-Up – July 2006

July brought with it the culmination of the World Cup and subsequently ITV1 suffering a very low average weekly viewing share across all television homes, as it fell to 16.8% share across the month.

ITV1’s share also fell in digital homes whilst BBC One saw its share swell year on year, although not to the levels seen last month with the advent of the World Cup.

ITV1 had a very poor month during July, as the channel struggled to compete for share. It slid to 16.8% share, following a year on year drop of 3.4% points.

With Channel 4’s Big Brother continuing to be a ratings’ winner throughout the month, ITV1’s offering of Love Island failed to make much of an impression (see Love Island Struggles To Seduce).

In addition, ITV1 suffered a massive ratings defeat during the simulcast of the World Cup final, as 83% of terrestrial adult viewers chose the BBC’s coverage over the commercial broadcaster’s (see Viewers Choose BBC One In World Cup Final Face-Off).

Meanwhile, BBC Two and Five both suffered slight slides in share over the course of the month, resting at 8.5% and 6.1% respectively.

A similar pattern can be seen in digital homes, with ITV1 again dropping share points with BBC One and Channel 4 gaining.

ITV1 lost 1.7% points during the month, whilst BBC One saw its share increase year on year to over 20%, however this was a fall from last month’s hefty figures, probably created by their World Cup coverage.

Channel 4 closed in on 10% share in digital homes, as the broadcaster increased its share by 0.7% points, with an average of 9.8% share over the month.

Multichannel stations saw their share drop slightly, but still remains the main viewing option in digital homes, with nearly 43% share.

As in previous months, BBC1 remains the most popular terrestrial channel in both Sky and Freeview homes during July, with nearly 18% of viewing in Sky homes and 26% in Freeview homes.

The majority of viewing remains dominated by multichannel stations in both Sky and Freeview homes, although there was only 3.2% points difference between multichannel and BBC One in Freeview homes during the month.

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