Record Six Months For Commercial TV

Commercial broadcast TV had a record-breaking first six months of 2008, according to the latest figures from the Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board (BARB).

The first half of the year saw total commercial impacts up 6% on the same period last year – 15% growth over the last five years.

The UK watched 2.4 billion broadcast TV ads a day during January to June, an average of 42 ads per person.

BARB’s total figure shows that commercial impacts are also up for key advertiser audiences, with ABC1s watching 9% more TV ads and 16-34s watching 3% more.

The figures, published in television marketing body Thinkbox’s Half Year Review, also show that the much-reported popularity of watching TV via broadcasters’ web services – such as ITV.com, Sky Player, iPlayer, 4OD and Demand Five – seen in the first half of 2008, seems to be incremental to the broadcast TV that people have always watched.

Last week, Thinkbox announced that it has commissioned research to examine how and why people use online TV (see Thinkbox To Examine Online TV).

BARB’s figures only measure domestic broadcast TV, and they show that people watched 3.77 hours of broadcast TV a day in the first half of 2008. This is 2% more than the five year average for the period and compares well to figures from ten years ago, when the average daily viewing was 3.65 hours a day.

Commercial broadcast viewing is up 4% on the same period last year and up 8.5% on the same period ten years ago. People in the UK watched an average of 2.34 hours of commercial TV a day during January to June 2008.

Tess Alps, Thinkbox’s chief executive, said: “This is a shaft of very bright light that cuts through any economic gloom. Broadcast TV revenues held firm in the first half of 2008, and, whatever the economic climate holds for the advertising market, I hope these figures will underline the great strength and resilience of commercial TV.

“Advertisers should be taking advantage of a medium that offers proven effectiveness, increasing value, and is growing. The advertisers who recognize this will enjoy bottom lines as healthy as TV’s viewing figures.”

Thinkbox: www.thinkbox.tv BARB: www.barb.co.uk