BBC3 Claims Share Increase For Target Youth Audience
BBC3 is celebrating its first 100 days on air by claiming an increase in share amongst its key 25 to 34 year-old audience.
The digital entertainment channel, which launched last year after a series of delays and setbacks, has seen its share of the key youth demographic increase by 0.5% points on its predecessor BBC Choice.
According to the latest viewing figures from the BBC, the fledgling channel has seen its share of 25 to 34 year-olds grow from an average of 1.9% across 2002 on BBC Choice to an average of 2.4% on BBC3.
The Corporation also claims that over-two thirds of the digital audience has watched BBC3 programming for 15 minutes or more since its launch, helping the channel to enjoy a weekly reach of 3.4 million.
The news will be welcomed by the BBC, which struggled to get approval for the digital youth channel, following complaints from rival commercial broadcasters that the channel is unnecessary in a market already well served by commercial TV (see Commercial Broadcasters Unite To Halt BBC3).
However, after much persuasion, Culture Secretary, Tessa Jowell, finally gave the channel the go ahead, with a series of stringent conditions to ensure that it is “genuinely distinctive, genuinely public service and genuinely innovative” (see Government Finally Gives BBC3 The Go Ahead).
BBC3 may have seen its share of 25 to 34 year-old viewing increase over recent months, but in terms of overall audience share, it still lags someway behind other youth-focussed, entertainment channels. So far in 2003, Sky One has seen its share of viewing hover around the 3% mark, while E4 and ITV2 have consistently attracted around 1% of the available multi-channel audience.
Earlier this month the BBC announced plans to strengthen its commercial operations with the launch of a new venture capital unit, called BBC Vecta (see BBC3 Launch Attracts An Average Audience Of 154,000).
BBC: 020 8743 8000 www.bbc.co.uk
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