There have been substantial drops in viewing levels to RTE TV and UTV in the Irish Republic with a reassessment of programming policy needed to get viewing levels back, according to a report from the Irish agency the Media Bureau.
The Nielsen measurement system for television viewing in Ireland has now been running for seven months and the agency felt it was time to review what the new operation was showing. In the past six months overall viewing levels to any television has fallen some 7% on the same period last year but December was down 8% and March 1997 some 20%.
The conclusion is that there is a significant deterioration in television viewing across all stations except for the satellite channels. For RTE the Media Bureau believes this is “a serious situation that cannot be explained away by ‘weather conditions’ or the new measurement system.”
The latest position in terms of Adult share of channel viewing (March 1997) put RTE as having 57% of all national viewing with 15% to the BBC and 14% to combined satellite viewing, with the balance split between UTV (10%) and 5% to Channel 4. The agency concludes that for RTE it seems that a more radical shake up in programming may be required. Clearly the BBC, Channel 4 and the satellite channels are continuing to make inroads on RTE – and for that matter UTV.
For further information, contact Michael P. Bowles at The Media Bureau on 00 353 1 283 8933
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