Television News Audiences Surged During War In Iraq
Audiences for news programming on television received a massive boost during the recent war in Iraq, according to new research from the Independent Television Commission.
The Conflict Around The Clock report, published today, shows that television was the main source of news for 67% of respondents during the conflict, compared with 16% for newspapers, 13% for radio and just 1% for the internet.
The study also reveals a huge surge in viewing amongst multichannel homes, which saw an increase of 145%, from 118 minutes per week to 289 minutes per week. Viewing in terrestrial homes also increased by a massive 84%, from 171 minutes per week to 315.
The conflict represented something of a mine field for the UK’s major terrestrial broadcasters, which virtually cleared their schedules to make way for extended news coverage and special real-time bulletins.
ITV moved its nightly news to 9pm and made the bulletin an advertiser free zone. The research shows that the broadcaster benefited from this move and secured the largest single audience for its evening bulletin on the 24 March, with a peak of 9.2 million viewers (see Feature: TV News Proves Its Worth In Times Of Crisis).
However, the BBC was the most popular choice for multichannel and terrestrial TV viewers throughout the conflict. The broadcaster’s national status is confirmed by the report, which states: “At moments of world-wide significance, audiences tend to turn to the BBC for their coverage.”
The 24-hour nature of the coverage benefited Sky News, which is picked out as the most successful multichannel station during the coverage. The ITC claims the channel did particularly well amongst younger viewers (16-24), whose waning interest in news prior to the war had been widely documented.
However, the research also reveals the growing distrust of television news, which could potentially devalue the medium. Channel 4 and Five were considered to show the most fair television coverage and CNN was deemed to be the least impartial.
A quarter of respondents thought that BBC1, ITV1 and Sky News showed bias towards America and Britain. The findings suggest that despite the growing popularity of television news, the currency of trust placed in the medium is in decline.
The ITC and the BSC recently published a report, which suggests that audiences from minority ethnic groups are concerned about the use of negative stereotypes and the over-simplified portrayals of their communities on television (see Ethnic Minorities Criticise TV And Radio Stereotypes)
. ITC: 0207 306 7743 www.itc.org.uk
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