TV Round Up – February 1994
The combined TV Revenue for February, based on agency estimates, came in at £134.15m, an increase of 8.3% on the same month last year. The ITV share was £107.25m, with Channel 4 at £26.9m. This is an 80:20 split. Channel 4 has increased its share by 4% points on 1993, when it attracted only 16% of total ITV revenue.
Among the ITV contractors, the best performance came from Central, which seems to be consistenly improving its share month after month; February’s share was up 1.63% points on February 1993. Of the two London stations, Carlton fared best, increasing share by 0.2% points; LWT’s share fell by 0.43% points, although trading days were equal. London as a whole fell 0.2% points on last year.
The worst performance was from YTTV, down 1.25% points on 1993, although Granada and Border’s joint revenue was down 0.51% points last year. Meridian also dropped 0.11% points.
ITV CONTRACTOR REVENUE SHARES
| FEB 93 | FEB 94 | % PTS CHANGE | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carlton | 15.03 | 15.23 | 0.2 |
| LWT | 13.35 | 12.92 | -0.43 |
| London | 28.38 | 28.15 | -0.23 |
| Central | 15.11 | 16.74 | 1.63 |
| Gran/Bord | 11.72 | 11.21 | -0.51 |
| YTTV | 11.46 | 10.21 | -1.25 |
| STV | 5.16 | 4.84 | -0.32 |
| Grampian | 1.1 | 1.07 | -0.03 |
| HTV | 5.53 | 5.71 | 0.18 |
| Meridian | 10.88 | 10.77 | -0.11 |
| Anglia | 6.93 | 7.16 | 0.23 |
| Wtrcy | 2.19 | 2.3 | 0.11 |
| Ulster | 1.64 | 1.84 | 0.2 |
Messages for February followed the pattern of most of 1993 and January 1994 by falling across the board. The worst decrease was amongst men, down 8.6% on February last year. Adults also decreased substantially, 5.4% The smallest decrease came from the Housewives audience, down 3.5% year on year.
COMMERCIAL MESSAGES - ITV/C4
| Hwvs | Adults | Men | Women | Hwvs/Child | ABC1 Adults | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Audience | 22463 | 37266 | 14855 | 22411 | 6393 | 13312 |
| % C YoY | -3.5 | -5.4 | -8.6 | -3.7 | -4.6 | -3.9 |
As has been the pattern in recent months, rising revenue and decreasing messages mean that the average network Cost Per Thousands have increased significantly. The biggest increase was among men, up 18.5%. Adults increased 14.7%. The most modest rise was from Housewives; even this was an increase of 12.2%. £ for network costs per thousand …
COST PER THOUSANDS - COMBINED ITV/C4
| Hwvs | Adults | Men | Women | Hwvs/Child | ABC1 Adults | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Audience | 724 | 436 | 1094 | 725 | 2543 | 1221 |
| % ch YoY | 12.2 | 14.7 | 18.5 | 12.4 | 13.5 | 12.7 |
In terms of hours of viewing BBC improved on January at the expense of ITV; total BBC hours of monthly viewing were 12:31 hours, up from 11:54 hours. ITV’s hours decreased from 14:30 to 13:45. BBC 1’s share of viewing did not alter from January to February; ITV;s share decreased from 40.7 to 37.8%. Channel 4 and BBC 2 fared better; BBC 2 increased share from 9.8 in January to 11.9% and Channel 4 increased from 10.9 to 11.1%. Satellite increased its share from 6% to 6.5%.
INDUSTRY NEWS
It was announced in February that Channel 4, after its first year of trading on its own, had been so successful that it would have to pay ITV a massive £38.2m. The Channel 5 debate was also re-opened in February; the ITC announced its intention to readvertise the Channel 5 licence, pending a decision on digital transmission from the government. This brought angry reaction from the industry, and calls that the ITC was giving into the ITV companies who are against any extra competition.
The take over battles continued; Granada was finally victorious over LWT on 25 February, and Flextech, a cable company, took a 20% stake in HTV.
The BBC achieved record viewing figures for Torville and Dean’s ice dance final at the Winter Olympics; nearly 24 million viewers. This is the biggest television audience for a sports event since England’s appearance in the 1990 World Cup Semi-Final.
SURVEYS
According to the IPA’s Trends in TV Viewing Report, TV Viewing for 1993 was down 4.3% for terrestrial viewing, and down 3.1% for consolidated viewing for all channels. ITV’s share of viewing was down 0.8% points on 1992, to 40% for 1993. BBC had a share of 32%. Non-terrestrial channels had a 6.5% share. ITV gained 14 out of the top 20 programmes in 1993.