ITV Sees Audience Share Slide In July

The ITV Network saw viewing figures fall to an all time low in July, with ITV1 recording an audience share of just 22.5% for the month.

This figure represents a 1.5% decline on the previous month’s audience share, which was a healthier 24%, but is down 4.6% on the figure for July 2001, which was 27.1%.

On 25 July, which has reportedly been dubbed ‘black Thursday’ at the network centre, ITV’s share of viewing dropped to 17.5%. The peaktime schedule for that day is understood to have included two consecutive shows presented by Carole Vorderman: Soap Star Lives and Carol Vorderman’s Better Homes.

According to ITV, June is always a bad month for ratings and this year, the popularity of Wimbledon and the Commonwealth Games on the BBC contributed to lower than average audience share for the month.

However, a spokesperson for ITV insisted that viewing figures are expected to improve over the coming months and ITV recently invested an extra £28m in the autumn schedule to strengthen its drama and entertainment output, whilst giving a boost to its daytime schedule (see ITV Increases Programming Budget For 2002).

Last month ITV’s director of Channel’s, David Liddiment, announced that he is leaving the channel (see Liddiment Quits ITV Director Of Channels Role) in the year that BBC1 secured more viewers than ITV1 for the first time on over 40 years (see BBC Claims Ratings Victory Over ITV).

ITV: 020 7843 8000 www.itv.com

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