Television Viewing Round-Up – May 2007

BBC Two was the only terrestrial channel to see any growth in its viewing share in all homes year on year for May, with the station experiencing a 0.2 percentage point rise.

Channel 4 saw the largest fall, at 2.1 percentage points, whilst Five, BBC One and ITV1 also dropped.

Channel 4 saw its viewing share fall 2.1 percentage points to 8.5% year on year for May, with the broadcaster no doubt hoping to reverse this decline for June with Big Brother series 8 in full swing.

Towards the end of the month, Ofcom gave its ruling on last year’s Celebrity Big Brother race row, saying there was a serious failure within Channel 4’s compliance procedures for the series and that apologies must be screened before the new BB began (see Ofcom Announces Celebrity Big Brother Ruling).

Meanwhile, BBC One saw a 0.8 percentage point dip in its share, despite the big guns of The Apprentice (see Another Good Night For The Apprentice) mid-week and Doctor Who and Any Dream Will Do (see Any Dream Will Do Still Going Strong) bolstering Saturday night’s viewing.

ITV1’s share also dipped, by 0.4 percentage points, whilst BBC Two was the only terrestrial station to record a rise in its share. BBC One’s sister station saw a jump of 0.2 percentage points, with high rating shows like Andrew Marr’s History Of Britain, which took a peak audience of 3.7 million adults (a 17.6% share) for its second show late in the month, boosting the channel’s share (see More Viewers For Marr’s History).

Other programmes that proved successful for BBC Two throughout the month included coverage of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show (see Ageing Cops Continue To Shine) and David Suchet’s portrayed of Robert Maxwell (see BBC One Edges Bank Holiday Battle).

Multichannels also recorded an upturn for the month year on year, climbing significantly by 3.6 percentage points to take 36.2% of television viewing in all homes in the UK.

Meanwhile, in digital homes, the commercial trio of ITV1, Channel 4 and Five all recorded a decline in viewing share, whilst both BBC One and BBC Two bolstered theirs – by 0.1 and 0.4 percentage points respectively.

As in all homes, Channel 4 recorded the largest loss, of 1.8 percentage points, followed by ITV1 with a slide of 0.3 percentage points and Five with 0.2 percentage points.

Multichannel now holds a share in digital homes of just under 44%, after an increase of almost two percentage points year on year, compared to BBC One’s 20.1% and ITV1’s share of 17.1%.

BBC One once again retained its position as the most popular terrestrial channel in both Sky and Freeview homes, with a 23.8% share in Freeview homes and a 17.5% in Sky homes.

Multichannel options continued their dominance, remaining the most popular channel choice in both Freeview and Sky homes. Viewing share of these digital channels is 53.1% in Sky homes and 32.7% in Freeview homes, with the difference due to the smaller channel choice available on Freeview.

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