Television Market Round-Up – March 2005

Five continued to perform well during March, notching up the largest revenue increase of any terrestrial broadcaster, adding 31.1% year on year to stop just shy of £26.3 million as the broadcaster moved to face off against ITV in a full-scale daytime TV showdown.

March saw Five move its high-profile chat show, Trisha Goddard, to a morning slot as part of its new look daytime schedule. The revised schedule pitted the former ITV1 golden girl in direct competition with the rival station’s newest acquisition, and chat show king, Jerry Springer, in a blatant fight for chat show supremacy (see Five Moves Trisha To Compete In Chatshow Showdown).

Meanwhile, ITV retaliated to increased pressure on its daytime audiences, rebranding its late morning and afternoon programming as ITV Day with a distinctive on-screen look designed to visually express that “ITV Day feels like a special place to be” (see ITV Rebrands Daytime As Competition Hots Up).

ITV also saw its revenues rise in March, adding 10.5% year on year, taking its total to just under the £146 million mark. The company’s recently acquired GMTV was also in good health with a rise in revenues during March adding 12.6% year on year to total just over £5.6 million.

The breakfast broadcaster has seen advertising revenue rise, according to ITV’s final year results, with ad revenue across ITV1, ITV2, ITV3, the ITV News Channel and GMTV up 4.7% year on year to £1,58 billion. Each of the top five advertiser categories, food, retail, entertainment, cars and finance were up in 2004 according to the broadcaster (see Advertising Revenues Drive ITV Profits Up).

Elsewhere, Channel 4 saw an impressive rise, adding 19.4% to its revenues year on year during march. The broadcaster now generates £62.5 million, with March seeing the company acquire the majority stake in the Oneword radio station from UBC Media (see Channel 4 Radio Moves Closer With Oneword Acquisition).

The move makes further progress towards the creation of a Channel 4 branded national speech station, designed to compete directly with BBC Radio 4, although Channel 4 has been reluctant to put a definitive time-frame on the creation of such a venture.

Satellite broadcasters as a whole also saw a solid increase in revenues, adding 15.2% to their total year on year and rising to almost £67 million.

ITV Franchises

London based Carlton and LWT both saw rises in their share of ITV’s revenue during March, rising by 1.4% points each to generate 15.76% and 11.77% of the broadcaster’s total revenue respectively.

Elsewhere, changes were relatively minor, with the North West/Border and Yorkshire/North East regions suffering declines of 0.8% points each. The regions now contribute 9.7% and 10.33% of ITV’s total revenue respectively, while the Meridian and West Country regions remained unchanged.

Central remains ITV’s largest contributing region, with a revenue share of 16.13%. However, this has dipped by 1.1% year on year, the largest decline of all ITV’s regional franchises.

Costs Per Thousand

All three of the nation’s commercial terrestrial broadcasters saw a rise in costs per thousand during March, with rises across the board led by Five’s Housewives with Children category, rising by 41.9% year on year.

ITV1 also saw a rise in the cost for Housewives with Children, adding 26.7% in the same period, while Channel 4 added 24.4%.

Channel 4’s Housewives category saw a larger upturn, adding 33.7% year on year to £14.39, while again, Five outperformed its peers, adding 35.8% year on year to its costs for the category.

Commercial Impacts

Both ITV and Channel 4 saw their commercial impacts dip in March, with Five the only commercial terrestrial broadcaster managing an increase in any audience.

Five’s 0.9% increase year on year in ABC1 Adult impacts was the only increase in an otherwise depressed terrestrial market, with Channel 4 seeing particularly large downturns in its Women and Housewives audiences, losing 10.3 and 10.7 respectively.

Elsewhere, ITV’s Housewives with Children audience was worst hit, losing 12.8% of its impacts year on year.

The nation’s satellite broadcasters fared better, with strong double digit percentage growth evident in all audiences. Men performed best, with a year on year increase of 15.9% bucking the trend for decline across terrestrial broadcasters.

BARB: www.barb.co.uk