ITV Regains Viewing Share In Q4 2003

The figures show that ITV’s share of viewing was 23.8% in Q4, marginally ahead of multichannel’s 23.7%, but still behind BBC1’s 25.4%. However, whilst ITV made up some ground in a quarter on quarter analysis – from 23.2% to 23.8% – share was actually down very slightly year on year, from 23.9% to 23.8%.

The commercial sector enjoyed a year on year growth in share, largely at the expense of BBC1. ITV, Channel 4, Five and the multichannel stations saw their combined share of viewing rise from 61.8% in Q4 2002 to 63.5% in Q4 2003.

TV platforms The report also tracks the number of homes using each type of broadcast platform. Since Q1 2002, the number of digital homes has increased from 8.7 million to 11.0 million, whilst analogue homes have fallen from 15.9 million to 13.7 million.

Digital satellite is the clear market leader in the DTV sector, with BSkyB’s service installed in 6.8 million homes by the end of the year, according to the IPA figures. Digital terrestrial TV (DTT), provided by Freeview, was received in 2.1 million homes and digital cable reached 2.3 million homes.

The combined total for the three platforms – satellite, cable and terrestrial (11.2 million) – is a higher figure than the total number of digital homes (11.0 million) due to the fact that some households may have more than one receiver unit.

UK TV Homes Platform Universes (000s)
Â	Dig-sat	Dig-cable	Dig-terr	Total digital	Total anlg	Anlg cable	Anlg terr	All platforms
Q1 2002	5,583	2,223	974	8,716	15,865	1,637	14,013	24,528
Q2 2002	5,730	2,330	997	8,905	15,731	1,310	14,136	24,570
Q3 2002	6,105	2,292	763	9,015	15,645	1,148	14,265	24,613
Q4 2002	6,247	2,516	873	9,491	15,283	924	14,127	24,727
Q1 2003	6,372	2,156	1,398	9,718	15,101	1,222	13,647	24,772
Q2 2003	6,470	2,156	1,510	9,928	14,930	1,122	13,576	24,811
Q3 2003	6,600	2,250	1,710	10,354	14,544	1,010	13,303	24,857
Q4 2003	6,785	2,326	2,075	10,961	13,688	951	12,576	24,612
Source: IPA, February 2004

UK TV Homes Platform Universes Share (%)
	Dig-sat	Dig-cable	Dig-terr	Total digital	Total anlg	Anlg cable	Anlg terr	All platforms
Q1 2002	22.8	9.1	4.0	35.5	64.7	6.7	57.1	100.0
Q2 2002	23.3	9.5	4.1	36.2	64.0	5.3	57.5	100.0
Q3 2002	24.8	9.0	3.1	36.6	63.6	4.7	58.0	100.0
Q4 2002	25.3	10.0	3.5	38.4	61.8	3.7	57.1	100.0
Q1 2003	25.7	9.0	5.6	39.2	61.0	4.9	55.1	100.0
Q2 2003	26.1	8.7	6.1	40.0	60.2	4.5	54.7	100.0
Q3 2003	26.6	9.1	6.9	41.7	58.5	4.1	53.5	100.0
Q4 2003	27.6	9.5	8.4	44.5	55.6	3.9	51.1	100.0
Source: IPA, February 2004