TV Market Round-Up – February 2006

February saw all terrestrial broadcasters suffer a fall in revenue year on year, with ITV1 faring worst, facing its second consecutive month of substantial decreases. The broadcaster saw its revenue fall by 11.4% year on year, down £15 million on the previous year.

Channel 4 and Five both saw their revenue fall, with Channel 4 losing 7.1% whilst Five was down by 6.1%. Five announced in February that it would broaden its schedules during 2006 with the introduction of new contemporary documentaries, combining human interest stories and factual programming (see Five Signs New Documentaries To Bolster 2006 Schedule).

Total satellite revenue increased by over £13 million, with an increase of 23.7% year on year. Sky announced plans for its HD launch, listing the first wave of HD channels in its electronic programme guide (see Sky Gears Up For High Definition Launch).

ITV Franchises

Carlton and Scotland saw the greatest increase in their share of ITV revenues during February, both increasing by 0.7% points year on year. Carlton continued to provide the largest franchise share of ITV’s revenues at 16.3%.

By comparison, LWT lost 2.1% points year on year to provide a 10.7% share of the broadcaster’s revenue.

West Country continued to provide the smallest share at just 2.1% of ITV’s total, up 0.1% year on year.

ITV1 saw its CPTs for our featured audiences all decrease in February year on year. Adults, Men, Women and Housewives all fell by between 6.3% and 6.6% year on year, while Housewives with Children dipped by 2.9% to £48.71. This is very similar to Channel 4’s Housewives with Children price, which had fallen by 10% year on year to £48.72.

The remaining audiences for Channel 4 also suffered significant drops, with both Women and Housewives falling by around 12% year on year. ABC1 Adults was the only exception, which went up by 1.6% on last year’s levels.

Five continued to have the cheapest CPTs, as Adults, Men, Housewives and ABC1 Adult prices all fell year on year.

ITV1 again saw its impacts fall across all of the featured audiences, with Men, Adults and ABC1 Adults faring worst.

Channel 4 by comparison saw impact increases year on year for ABC1 Adults, up 5.4%; Adult impacts, however, fell by 8.5%.

Five had a very good month in relation to Housewives, as it saw its impacts increase by 21.5% year on year. Over the same period, its impacts for Men fell by 12.2%

Satellite continued to make huge gains, with impacts up by around 20% for all the featured audiences.

Please note – following client feedback, we now include commercial impact figures for Total Broadcast as well as for ITV1, C4, Five and Satellite – as such the table has a different layout.

BARB: www.barb.co.uk