IPA Reports Over Half Of UK Homes Have Digital TV

According to the IPA, ITV’s audience share in Q4 increased to 23.3% at the expense of the BBC, whose share declined to 23.8%. Channel 4 also saw a fall in audience share for the last quarter of 2004, dropping to 9%.

The BBC enjoyed a strong performance over the Christmas week, securing a 23.1% viewing share. ITV and the other non-terrestrial channels did not fair so well, with ITV taking 23.3% of the audience share, BBC2 at 9.3%, Channel 4 with 9.2% and Five drawing in 6.4% of viewers.

In terms of demographics, the channels performed consistently with previous quarters. The strong bias of the non-terrestrial audience towards the younger age groups continued, taking a 45.6% share amongst children. In comparison, non-terrestrial achieved a 14.5% share of viewing for the 55+ age group.

Commenting on the results, Lynne Robinson, IPA research director said: “The latest TV Trends report shows that the overall level of television viewing in the last quarter of 2004, and 2004 as whole, was fairly constant. The major point of interest in the data is the continual growth in digital homes, which now constitutes 54% of the television universe. This growth is spearheaded by digital terrestrial.”

Channel 4 recently announced its strongest January performance for five years, revealing a 10.3% rise in audience share for the first month of 2005, an 11% increase on the same period in 2003 (see Channel 4 Reports Record Performance In Five Years).

Elsewhere, media consultancy Billets, estimates that commercial audiences in 2005 are expected to rise by 3%, led by rising multi-channel penetration (see Billetts Predicts TV Revenue To Lead 2005).