Annual TV Viewing Round Up – 1999

Programmes It comes as no surprise that the top-rated programme of the year is ITV’s Coronation Street, with the episode broadcast on 7 March attaining an audience of 19.82 million. The second most watched programme of the year was hugely successful quiz show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, which, shown immediately after the Coronation Street episode, was watched by 19.21 million people.

The number one film of the year was the terrestrial premiere of James Bond’s Goldeneye, which had 13.23 million viewers shaken but not stirred. Top comedy programme was the third of four Christmas special editions of BBC1’s Vicar of Dibley, with 14.37 million viewers. Manchester United’s last minute defeat of Bayern Munich in the Champion’s League final gave ITV the top rated sports programme of the year (15.62 million viewers).

Channel 4’s top programme of 1999 was the first episode from the fifth series of Friends. The episode which saw the aftermath of Ross’ wedding day mix up, attracted an audience of 5.81 million viewers.

England’s abysmal match against Poland, in the crucial Euro 2000 qualifier, narrowly edged out the network premiere of Independence Day to become Channel 5’s top rated programme of the year, with 5.63 million viewers. This was just ahead of the 5.41 million who watched the 1996 blockbuster sci-fi film. The most-watched non-terrestrial programme was the Premier League match between Liverpool and their bitter rivals Manchester United, which had an audience of 2.58 million.

Viewing Share With the exception of the unchanged Adults and slightly improved ABC1 Adults on Channel 4, all terrestrial broadcasters bar Channel 5 lost viewing share for all audience categories between 1998 and 1999. Channel 5 along with cable and satellite channels continues to poach audiences away from the old guard of terrestrial broadcasters.

Channel 5’s greatest year on year increase is for the Men audience. The station’s continued use of top sporting events like Euro 2000 qualifiers and UEFA Cup football, helped push the viewing share total up 1.2% points to a 5.8% average.

Cable and satellite stations recorded the greatest year on year audience increase, with viewing share for Children rising 2.2% points to an average of 24.5% for 1999.

ITV was once again the market leader in terms of overall Individuals (4+) viewing share. The majority of the year fell under ITV’s new look evening schedule which saw the Network record a 0.5% point fall in comparison to 1998’s average viewing share. Even taking an average of the months after the new schedule came into effect, March to December, ITV still recorded a year on year decline in share of 0.7% points to 30.9%. However, ITV’s objective, to increase viewing share in the peaktime segment, has been achieved, even if it is to the detriment of the rest of the schedule.

Ratings – 8pm-11pm

BBC1’s average peaktime* ratings for 1999 fell across all audience categories. The biggest drop was seen among the Men audience, down 1.0% in comparison to 1998’s average, closely followed by ABC1 Adults which was down 0.9% year on year.

In the battle for viewers that are not properly catered for by the mainstream terrestrial channels, BBC2 is losing out to the ever-improving Channel 5 and the stable Channel 4. Like its sister channel BBC1, BBC2 recorded year on year falls for all its peaktime audience categories, with the biggest fall going to the Adults audience (down one percentage point).

However, despite the year on year decreases, BBC2’s audience ratings are still higher than that of either Channel 4 or Channel 5.

Market leader ITV finds itself in the curious position of recording year on year increases in all its peaktime audiences, yet suffering a drop in average weekly viewing share. ITV’s new peaktime schedule, which took effect from the second week of March, was responsible pushing up the channel’s audience ratings for 1999 during this part of the day.

ITV’s Housewives/Children audience had the biggest increase, rising 1.7% points on 1998’s figures. The second best performance came from Women, which rose by 1.0% point year on year.

Channel 4 had a pretty stable year with its peaktime ratings, with half of its categories recording percentage changes of around 0.1. Housewives/Children and Women fell the most, down 0.3% and 0.2% respectively, while Adults remained unchanged.

Channel 5 continues to make the best yearly gains of any terrestrial station, as penetration levels increase. Average audience ratings for 1999 rose across the board for all categories, the best of which was Men rising by 0.6% year on year.

*Peaktime as defined by ITV is 7:00pm to 10:30pm. The ratings figures given here cover the 8:00pm to 11pm timeslot as this is closest period for which ratings figures are supplied.

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A summary of the key news events from 1999 is available by clicking A Look Back At 1999….