TV Market Round-Up – April 2007

April saw revenues fall for all terrestrial broadcasters for the third consecutive month, with total terrestrial revenues declining by over 10%.

Revenues fell sharply in April for ITV1, as the broadcaster found itself over £15 million down on the previous year’s levels.

Five also felt a 10%-plus drop in revenue, as the broadcaster ended the month with £23.6 million. Channel 4’s slide of nearly 8% left the broadcaster with £56 million, down from £61 million the previous year.

Satellite revenues bucked the trends and increased by nearly 3% year on year. The ongoing saga between BSkyB and Virgin Media rattled on during April, as Virgin Media prepared to take its rival to court over the its removal of the basic channel package from Virgin’s new TV service (see Virgin Media Submits Sky Complaints To High Court).

ITV Franchises

Central, at 15.8%, remains the ITV franchise area providing the majority of ITV1’s revenue, despite a very slight drop in share year on year.

LWT saw the largest dip in share, of 0.8% points, whilst Scotland saw the greatest increase, of 0.4% points year on year.

West Country continued to provided the smallest share of revenue, at 2.1%.

All of ITV1’s CPTs for our featured audiences fell in April, with men faring best with a 1.6% slide year on year. Both Women and Housewives declined by over 8%.

Channel 4, meanwhile, saw an upturn in CPTs for all of our featured audiences. Men increased by nearly 7%, while Housewives, Housewives with Children and ABC1 Adults all rose by around 2%.

Five’s Housewives with Children price increased by 8% year on year, while Women and Housewives both dropped year on year by 1.1% and 2.3% respectively.

Terrestrial impacts fell across the board during April for all our featured audiences.

ITV1’s worst performing audiences were Men which dropped by over 10% and both Housewives with Children and ABC1 Adults which fell by around 8% year on year.

At both Channel 4 and Five, all our featured audiences’ impacts declined by at least 8%. Channel 4’s worst performing audience was Men which dropped by 13.7%, while at Five both Housewives and Children and ABC1 Adults slumped by over 16% year on year.

As the additional choice in channels continues to increase digital viewing, all our featured audiences on Multichannel options showed impact increases in April, with Women impacts increasing by over 17% year on year.

Total Broadcast impacts were mixed, with a downturn of 4% for Housewives with Children and an increase of nearly 2.5% for Women.

BARB: www.barb.co.uk