Television Market Round-Up – February 2005

Five performed admirably throughout February, seeing its revenues rise by 25.5% year on year to top £23.5 million, helped in part by the recent line up of ratings-winners and movie premieres screened by the broadcaster.

Amongst the shows behind Five’s success in February was American sitcom and Friends spin-off, Joey. The series broke Five’s non-film and sporting event viewing records, drawing over 4 million viewers as the show made its debut on British TV (see Joey Breaks Five’s Viewing Records With 4.1 Million).

Meanwhile, Channel 4 also increased its revenues, adding 21.3% year on year in February, with its total revenues now sitting just shy of £60 million. The broadcaster was in jubilant mood in February, celebrating its best January performance for five years. The broadcaster’s main channel saw its audience share rise to 10.3%, topping the performance of BBC2 and defying the downward trend of its terrestrial rivals (see Channel 4 Sees Best January In Years After Audience Boost).

Channel 4 also emerged as one of the two front runners in the battle for Crown Castle’s last remaining Freeview slot, going head to head with ITV for control of the airspace (see ITV To Face Channel 4 Over Empty Freeview Slot).

ITV saw its revenues increase year on year in February, adding 5% in the same month as it welcomed Ofcom’s Public Service Broadcasting review, allowing the company to cut its non-news regional output (see ITV Welcomes Loosened PSB Requirements). The move will enable ITV to concentrate on more revenue-generating programmes, a development which, coupled with the BBC’s new remit to avoid reality programming and competitive schedules, could see ITV notch up large financial gains (see BBC Reality Cuts Leave Door Open For ITV).

GMTV continued to see its revenues rise, adding a healthy 9.5% year on year, although February saw the broadcaster’s most famous face, presenter Eamonn Holmes, announce that he would be leaving the breakfast slot in April, ending a career of more than 12 years on the famous red sofa (see Holmes Quits GMTV After More Than A Decade).

Satellite broadcasters saw a solid 13.9% rise year on year in the same period, pushing total satellite revenues to just over £56 million.

ITV Franchises

Revenue shares amongst ITV’s regional franchises remained largely unchanged throughout February, with only LWT increasing by more than 1%. The London-based broadcaster saw its revenue share rise by 1.4% points to contribute 12.81% of ITV’s total revenue.

Fellow London operator Carlton also saw a rise, adding 0.7% points to its revenue share year on year to contribute 15.64.

Yorkshire/North East saw the largest decline in revenue share, albeit dropping by just 0.6% to reduce its contribution to 10.19% of ITV’s total revenue.

Central retained its position as ITV’s highest contributing region, representing 15.69% of the broadcaster’s total revenue, despite a slight dip of 0.3% points.

Costs Per Thousand

Costs per thousand rose for all broadcasters and for all audiences during February, with ITV seeing the largest rise for Housewives with Children, up 38.4% year on year. The audience is the highest priced for ITV, Channel 4 and Five, with costs of £51.68, £55.84 and £29.38 respectively.

Large rises were also seen for the Housewives audience, with Channel 4 and Five seeing their costs per thousand rising by 33% and 30.1% respectively year on year.

Commercial Impacts

There were declines in commercial impacts across the board amongst terrestrial broadcasters in February, with ITV1 faring the worst, seeing drops for all audiences. The broadcaster saw the largest downturn for Housewives with Children, a decline of 24.1% year on year. Meanwhile, both Channel 4 and Five managed to increase their commercial impacts for the audience, rising by 7.3% and 1.7% year on year, although it was the only area of improvement for Channel 4.

Five also saw its number of commercial impacts rise for ABC1 Adults, adding 4.8% year on year, while satellite impacts rose by double figure percentages across the board, with most growth coming from ABC1 Adults, which rose by 18.7% year on year.

BARB: www.barb.co.uk

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