Television Round-Up – May
Revenue
The combined ITV/C4 revenue for May, based on agency estimates, came in at £183.115 million, an increase of 4.4% year on year. This is the smallest increase in revenue since December 1993. The ITV figure was £144.865 million, an increase of 2.2% year on year; C4’s figure was £38.25 million, an increase of 13.6% on last May. This is a split of 79:21.
In terms of revenue share by contractors, the most movement came from the two London contractors; Carlton increased share by 1.63% points to 17.36%, and LWT lost 2.33% points decreasing share to 10.05%. This is LWT’s lowest share of revenue since August last year when it took just 9.95%. Conversely it is Carlton’s highest ever share of revenue.
TV CONTRACTOR SHARES
| TV Contractor | May-94 | May-95 | % Point Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carlton | 15.73 | 17.36 | 1.63 |
| LWT | 12.38 | 10.05 | -2.33 |
| London | 28.11 | 27.41 | -0.7 |
| Central | 15.22 | 15.93 | 0.71 |
| Granada/Border | 10.59 | 11.07 | 0.48 |
| YTTV | 9.97 | 10.4 | 0.43 |
| STV | 4.8 | 4.67 | -0.13 |
| Grampian | 1.05 | 1.15 | 0.1 |
| HTV | 6.37 | 5.96 | -0.41 |
| Meridian | 12.02 | 11.76 | -0.26 |
| Anglia | 7.44 | 7.26 | -0.18 |
| Westcountry | 2.46 | 2.37 | -0.09 |
| Ulster | 1.99 | 2.02 | 0.03 |
MESSAGES
The network messages for ITV for May were down by around 10% across the board; men decreased the least, down 8% year on year and Housewives with Children los the most; 16.1% year on year. C4 fared better, up across the board by between 2.8% and 5.5%. This leaves the combined ITV/C4 messages down, with the worst performing audience being Housewives with Children, down 11.8% year on year.
MESSAGES – ITV/C4
| H/wvs | Adts | Men | Wmn | H/wvs+Kids | ABC1 Adlts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Audience | 20731 | 34199 | 13727 | 20472 | 5556 | 12365 |
| % Ch YoY | -7.6 | -7.4 | -5.8 | -8.6 | -11.8 | -8.4 |
COSTS PER THOUSAND
Although revenue increase for May was the smallest this year, messages were down sufficiently to mean that costs per thousand were up by over 10% on last year across the board, with the biggest increase coming from Housewives with Children, up 18.4%.
COSTS PER THOUSAND – ITC/C4 (p)
| H/wvs | Adts | Men | Wmn | H/wvs+Kids | ABC1 Adts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Audience | 1028 | 619 | 1543 | 1032 | 3772 | 1706 |
| % Ch YoY | 20.2 | 19.5 | 18.3 | 20.3 | 22.8 | 20.3 |
TV VIEWING
May’s viewing was down on April, with average weekly viewing per head for May at 23 hours 12 mins, down by over 2 hours on April. This is also the lowest month’s viewing so far this year, and also represents a fall on last May’s total viewing hours.
In terms of channels, BBC1 fared well in May, up 2.2% points to a 33.7% share of total viewing, seemingly at BBC2’s expense, which lost 2.4% points to a 10.2% share. Non-terrestrial viewing continues its growth, with yet another month when it has recorded its highest ever viewing share, this May up to 8.5% The picture is similar among ABC1 Adults, with a similar shift between and BBC2 in terms of share of viewing, but with the actual share that BBC1 and BBC2 have over the commercial channels remaining consistently larger.
SHARE OF VIEWING:
INDIVIDUALS ABC1 ADULTS APR 95 MAY 95 % PTS CH APR 95 MAY 95 % PTS CH BBC1 31.5 33.7 +2.2 35.2 37.2 +2.0 BBC2 12.6 10.2 -2.4 14.3 11.8 -2.5 ITV 36.1 36.4 +0.3 32.9 33.2 +0.3 C4 11.3 11.1 -0.2 10.5 10.8 +0.3 OTHERS 8.4 8.5 +0.1 7.0 7.0 0.0
INDUSTRY NEWS
The biggest industry news of May was the announcement of the bidders for Channel 5. The CanWest group, including SelecTV, put in the highest bid, of over £36m. There was controversy among the other bidders however, with Murdoch’s low bid of £2m shocking most. The Pearson and Virgin consortia both placed identical bids of £22,002,000, which caused an investigation by the Independent Television Commission.
BSkyB announced in May that it had passed the 4 million paying subscribers mark. A report by CIA Sensor revealed that satellite is depriving viewers, they feel, with 67% of UK adults being unhappy about the number of top sporting events and films being bought by the cable and satellite channels.
CIA Sensor also revealed a survey which stated that nearly £50m was wasted in 1994 on poorly-targetted TV advertising for food products. There was better news for spirits advertisers however, with 81% of people believing that spirits should advertise on TV. A further survey from CIA revealed that viewers still want the News at Ten to be moved to allow uninterrupted films. ITV was heavily criticised in May by both Channel 4 and the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, (IPA) for not spending enough money on programming. The Government Green Paper on Media Ownership, released in May, also meant changes for the industry in terms of ownership.