Television Viewing Round-Up – January 2009
There were varying year on year declines in viewing share for all five of the main terrestrial channels in January, with BBC One and ITV1 falling by 1.0 and 1.1 percentage points respectively.
All Viewing
BBC One now has a viewing share of 20.7% following its year on year dip, while ITV1’s stands at 18.0%.
There were a couple of big events on BBC One in January, with the channel’s coverage of Barack Obama’s inauguration picking up a peak of seven million viewers (see Obama’s inauguration attracts 7 million viewers), while Jonathon Ross’ return from his enforced hiatus grabbed a peak of more than five million viewers (see Ross’ comeback wins over 5 million viewers).
Over on ITV1 in January, the return of Dancing on Ice (see NewsLine) proved popular, as did the debut of drama Unforgiven (see ITV1’s Unforgiven debut pulls in 7.6 million viewers).
BBC Two and Channel 4 were down year on year by 0.3 and 0.4 percentage points respectively in January, leaving BBC Two’s viewing share at 8.0% and Channel 4’s at 7.6%.
Celebrity Big Brother was back on Channel 4 last month, and while the opening show had a peak of 5.8 million viewers (see Celebrity Big Brother kicks off with 5.8 million viewers) the grand final failed to impress, pulling in an average of 2.9 million viewers in the first show and 3.2 million in the second.
Five was down 0.2% year on year, leaving its viewing share at 4.8%. It was boosted by the start of series nine of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (see Five’s new CSI starts on a high).
Other channels were up by 2.8 percentage points year on year, to 40.1%.
Digital Viewing
Digital viewing also recorded several declines in January, although Five managed to buck the general trend by remaining static year on year, at 4.5%
Channel 4 dipped 0.2 percentage points year on year to 7.2%, while BBC Two was also down 0.2 percentage points, giving it a 7.2% viewing share in digital homes.
BBC One’s viewing share now stands at 19.4% following a year on year fall of 0.9 percentage points.
ITV1’s viewing share was also down in digital homes during January, falling 1.1 percentage points to 16.9%.
Other channels were up by 2.1 percentage point year on year, to 44.0%.
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