NewsLine Column: ITV’s Falling Share – The Media Planning Rules Are Changing
As 2002 plays out and plans are made for 2003, Kate Sergeant, consultant at Media Audits, explains why the long term structural decline of ITV is key to media planners.
Life used to be a lot simpler in the UK TV Market. Agencies could estimate the number of ratings they needed to buy to deliver to their reach and frequency targets. Everything pretty much went to plan. Now, the gross ratings point (GRP) weights that used to work, don’t. They don’t deliver the same reach anymore. Advertisers need to buy more GRPs, and their agencies need to buy more spots to achieve same reach as they were getting last year.
Media Audits coverage norms are at least 2 percentage points lower than they were last year. A significant driver of this effect is the weakness of ITV peak-time and, specifically, the lack of variety in its programme genre. This is a long term trend accelerated by a strong BBC.
The outlook for advertisers seeking to build reach rapidly, at low frequencies is looking increasingly gloomy. Going forwards it will become even more important to identify and capture light viewers as a means of generating 1+ and 2+ cover.
For other advertisers it is the quite the opposite. Some campaigns do not prioritise high reach at low frequencies and some do not target 35+ C1C2DE women. As ITV’s position as the bastion of mass market ‘big hit’ reach delivery weakens, more and more advertisers will find that they can live with a lot less of it, or even without any at all.
So, who will be the winners and who will be the losers? By this time next year we expect to see some significantly contrasting strategies amongst our TV clients. The trade-offs made between cost, quality and reach will be very clear indeed. We can say now what we think will be the most appropriate route for a given communication strategy. By this time next year we will be able to prove to our clients where it has worked and where it hasn’t.
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