IPA Trends In TV Report Reflects ITV’s World Cup Weakness
The IPA has released its latest Trends In Television Report showing that ITV’s share of viewing has fallen during the second quarter of 2002, whilst BBC1 has seen its audience share increase.
The report, which is the second since the introduction of the new BARB panel at the beginning of this year (see TV Viewing Levels Have Stabilised, Says BARB), shows that ITV1’s share of viewing has slipped from 25.1% in the first quarter of 2002, to 24.2% in the second quarter of this year. In comparison, BBC1 has seen its audience share rise by 1.9 percentage points over the same period to 27.2%.
According to the IPA, week by week data suggests that this is largely the result of BBC1’s high audience share during this summer’s World Cup. Throughout the tournament BBC1 attracted higher audiences than ITV1, with more than three times as many people watching England’s World Cup defeat at the hands of Brazil on the BBC than on ITV (see Over 12 Million Watch England’s World Cup Defeat On BBC1).
David Peters, broadcast planning director at Carat, claims the figures are part or a wider trend. He says: “The World Cup certainly wouldn’t have helped ITV’s share, especially as the BBC got the better end of the deal with regard to England games. However, the [Q2] figures are part of a trend that was established last year when BBC1 pipped ITV1 in the annual ratings” (see BBC Claims Ratings Victory Over ITV).
The other main terrestrial channels saw their share of viewing remain relatively static during the second quarter of this year, with the exception of BBC2, which saw a slight 1 percentage point decline to 10.7%.
The report also shows that the growth of non-terrestrial viewing appears to have halted, with the combined non-terrestrial channels seeing their overall share of viewing fall from 21.4% in the first quarter of 2002, to 21.3% in the second quarter of this year.
Overall patronage figures continue to show a year on year decline. However, the IPA stresses that the introduction of the new BARB panel has led to a “discontinuity” of the viewing data produced and that the two sets of data should not be directly compared.
The recorded average daily hours of viewing for total television is 3.47 hours for the second quarter of this year and this is in line with historical levels as recorded by the previous BARB panel.
IPA: 020 7235 7020 www.ipa.co.uk
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