ITV Improves Xmas Night Share

ITV’s share of the Christmas Night audience rose by 18% year-on-year to 38%, according to early viewing estimates. Heartbeat led the way with 12.5m viewers, followed by Coronation Street (11.5m) and Blind Date (11m).

ITV Network Director, Marcus Plantin commented: “We promised our viewers a much more attractive and home-grown line-up of programmes than we were in a position to provide last year – and we delivered. As a result our peaktime share on Xmas day almost doubled.”

On Boxing Day, ITV’s peaktime share was up by 7% year-on-year from 27% to 34%, and all time share was just one percentage point behind BBC1 at 37.5%.

CHRSITMAS WEEK VIEWING SHARE TRENDS – 1991-1994

                 Share of Total Viewing (%)             Av.Wkly Viewing (Hrs/Mins) per Person 
                1994   1993   1992   1991               1994    1993    1992    1991      
BBC1 *          37.1   42.2   40.2   42.3               10:38   12:59   13:15   14:51      
BBC2            11.0    8.5    9.3    7.8               3:10    2:37    3:04    2:44      
TOTAL BBC       48.1   50.7   49.5   50.1               13:48   15:36   16:19   17:34      
ITV *           35.3   34.3   37.6   38.5               10:08   10:32   12:25   13:30      
C4/S4C          10.0    9.0    7.9    7.7               2:52    2:47    2:37    2:42      
TOTAL ITV       45.3   43.3   45.6   46.2               13:00   13:19   15:02   16:12      
OTHERS          6.7    5.9    5.0    3.6                1:55    1:50    1:39    1:17      
ALL TV                                                  28:43   30:45   32:59   35:03      

* * – includes Breakfast Viewing.

1994- w/e 25/12. 1993- w/e 26/12. 1992- w/e 27/12. 1991- w/e 29/12..