Digital Television Round-Up – June 2004
Channel 4 under-performed slightly during June, with a dip of 1.15% in average share of weekly viewing in all homes, despite high profile attractions such as Big Brother and the finalé of American sitcom Friends (see Channel 4 Hits Ratings High With Friends And Big Brother).
The broadcaster’s share during June averages at just under the 11% mark, and although the slight downturn may seem disappointing, broadcast bosses will no doubt be satisfied that the situation was not worse, especially given the extra competition incurred from ITV and the BBC during the Euro 2004 championships throughout June.
Channel 4 hit a ratings high with the last ever episode of Friends, pulling in a peak audience of just under 9 million. The broadcaster maximised the impact of the show with so-called Black Friday, which saw the end of the American sitcom, and the beginning of Big Brother‘s fifth series (see Channel 4 Hits Ratings High With Friends And Big Brother). Throughout June the reality marathon has attracted massive audiences, with the now infamous ‘Big Brother Fight’ drawing a peak of almost 7 million, as well as attention from Ofcom and the police (see Ofcom Investigating Big Brother As Over 100 Complain).
ITV’s answer to Big Brother was high-profile reality-TV show, Hell’s Kitchen, which began at the end of May and ran into June. However, the celebrity cookery show did little to boost ITV’s share in all homes, as the broadcaster dipped by 1.5% despite a raft of football coverage from the Euro 2004 competition (see ITV Hails Euro 2004 A Success As Revenue Soars).
The BBC also failed to increase its share, although BBC1 managed to tread water throughout June, BBC2 suffered a slip of over 15%.
ITV improved its performance on last month in digital homes with its average weekly share of viewing increasing by 5% points year on year to just above the 18% mark. ITV is understood to be considering a raft of cost cutting measures, with reports that the broadcaster has earmarked several non-core businesses for sale which could raise around £600 million.
The sales could be seen as an answer to many claims, including those of former BBC chairman and economist, Gavyn Davies, that ITV could be facing severe financial problems as a result of multi-channel television’s growing popularity (see ITV Business Model Under Threat From Multi-Channel TV).
BBC2 was the only terrestrial channel to see a dip in weekly share year on year for all digital homes during June. The broadcaster lost 11.5% compared with the same period in 2003, leaving it with a 5.6% share overall.
ITV’s performance in Freeview homes continued to dwarf its share of Sky Digital viewers, due mainly to the lack of rivalry from other entertainment channels such as Sky One and E4. ITV notched up a share of more than 22.2% in Freeview homes during June, larger than the 16.7% obtained in Sky homes, but a slight decrease of 0.2% on the previous month.
The wider variety of content available via Sky Digital meant that other channels commanded an average weekly share of 49.6%, compared to just 18.9% in Freeview homes during the same period.
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