Scottish TV Dominates C4

Official BARB ratings for the first two weeks of the new schedule show Scottish TV’s audience share increasing from 33% to 47%, almost entirely at the expense of Channel 4, whose audience dropped on average from 13% to 8%.

In Scotland, Channel 4 had been taking a significant proportion of young viewers in the early evening. However, the move by Scottish to place Home and Away at 6pm, followed by the main local news programme Scotland Today at 6.30pm has dramatically changed audience share, particularly among the 16-24 age group. At 6.30pm Channel 4’s weekday audience in the region has plummeted from a 24% average to only 9% for that age group. The Scottish TV local news programme, Scotland Today was re-vamped at the beginning of the year.

In a MORI survey commissioned by Scottish Television and carried out over the summer, it was shown that Scottish Television out-performs C4 on almost all counts in Scotland. 62% of viewers in Scotland said Scottish is their favourite station; in England only 38% of viewers named ITV as their most-watched station. 80% said that if they had to choose between Scottish and C4 they would prefer STV.