TV Market Round-Up – August 2009

Television revenue continues to fall, with all channels recording year on year percentage declines.

Channel 4 was the worst affected station, with revenues dropping by 19.7% on August 2008’s total to stand at £36.5 million.

The next biggest fall was seen by Five, down by 16.8% on last year’s figures. It took in £15.5 million during August 2009, down from £18.6 million the previous year.

Meanwhile network broadcaster ITV1’s revenue total fell from £81.8 million last year to £70.2 million this year (a 14.1% decrease).

ITV Franchises

Central has retained the biggest share of ITV1 revenue, according to our agency estimates. The Midlands franchise area accounted for 15.66% of the network’s revenue, despite decreasing by 0.19 percentage points year on year.

Carlton stays in second place with 14.44%, with the London weekday franchise area down 0.04 percentage points on August 2008.

West Country fell by over 1.5 percentage points to provide the smallest share of network revenue, now standing at 2.09% for August 2009.

Costs Per Thousand

ITV1 had a tough month in terms of CPTs among our featured audiences. Housewives had the greatest percentage decrease, down by 6.2% year on year (to cost £7.77).

Channel 4 had across the board double digit reductions for our featured audiences during August. This time ABC1 Adults decreased the most to cost £12.82 (down by 19.8%).

All of Five’s CPT price fell for our featured audiences by at least 15% this month. The biggest decrease was among the Male audience, now costing £7.98 – 25.5% cheaper compared to August 2008.

ITV1 had a tough month in terms of our featured audiences among commercial impacts, with all audiences recording year on year falls. The worst affected was the Men audience, down by 14% on the previous year’s figures.

Channel 4’s commercial impacts also dropped across the board. The worst affected audience was Housewives with Children, down by 7.9% year on year.

Five’s commercial impacts managed to reverse the trend amongst terrestrial broadcasters, with all but one of our featured audiences improving on the previous year’s total. The audience that increased its commercial impacts the most was Men, up by 11.6% year on year.

Total Broadcast impacts were up across the board.