Television Round-Up – April
REVENUE
The combined TV Revenue share for April, based on agency estimates, came in at £157.89m, an increase of 5.6% on last year’s April figure. The ITV share was £125.55m, with Channel 4 at £32.33m. ITV’s figure is up 2.1% on last year’s figure; Channel 4’s figure is up 22.1% on last year’s revenue. This is an 80:20 split, no change from last month’s. April 1993 had an 82:18 split.
The best performance by far among ITV contractors came from LWT, improving share by 2.53% pts on last year, although it did have an extra trading day. London increased share by 2.27% pts. Meridian fared next best, improving share by 0.45% pts. The worst performance year on year was yet again from YTTV, down 1.35% points. Granada/Border fared next worst, losing 0.52% points on last year. Central lost 0.18% points on last year, and 1.2% points on last month, breaking its run of steady increases.
TV REVENUE CONTRACTOR SHARES - APRIL
| 1993 | 1994 | % PT CH YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carlton | 15.42 | 15.16 | -0.26 |
| LWT | 10.65 | 13.18 | 2.53 |
| London | 26.07 | 28.34 | 2.27 |
| Central | 15.54 | 15.36 | -0.18 |
| Granada/Border | 11.53 | 11.01 | -0.52 |
| YTTV | 10.97 | 9.62 | -1.35 |
| STV | 5.43 | 4.97 | -0.46 |
| Grampian | 1.17 | 1.14 | -0.03 |
| HTV | 6.34 | 6.05 | -0.29 |
| Meridian | 11.31 | 11.76 | 0.45 |
| Anglia | 7.32 | 7.33 | 0.01 |
| Westcountry | 2.42 | 2.47 | 0.05 |
| Ulster | 1.82 | 1.96 | 0.14 |
MESSAGES
Combined ITV/C4 messages for April fell again, and as has been the case since September 1993, the most pronounced decline was among men, down 6.1% on April last year, followed by housewives with children, down 2.6%. Women and housewives both showed slight increases on last year.
COMMERCIAL MESSAGES - ITV/C4
| Hwvs | Adults | Men | Women | Hwvs/Child | ABC1 Adults | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Audience | 22368 | 36959 | 14672 | 22287 | 6231 | 13491 |
| % CH YoY | 0.5 | -2.3 | -6.1 | 0.4 | -2.6 | -2.3 |
COSTS PER THOUSAND
With messages falling and revenue increasing, the average network Cost Per Thousands have increased across the board; although with revenue up by only 5.6%, and messages not falling all across the board, the increase in CPTs is not as extreme as last month. The biggest increase was among men, up 12.4%, followed by housewives with children.
COST PER THOUSANDS - COMBINED ITV/C4
| Hwvs | Adults | Men | Women | Hwvs/Child | ABC1 Adults | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Audience | 855 | 518 | 1304 | 858 | 3071 | 1418 |
| % CH YoY | 5 | 8.1 | 12.4 | 5.3 | 8.5 | 8.2 |
SHARE OF VIEWING
In terms of share of viewing, BBC fared better than ITV in April. BBC’s share overall was up 1.3%, compared to March. This was due to BBC2, which increased its share by 2.1% BBC1’s share was down by 0.8%. Both ITV and C4 suffered a decline in audience share compared to last month; ITV was down 0.3%, and C4 was down 0.9% Satellite also lost share on last month, down 0.1%.
BARB MONTHLY AUDIENCE SHARES
| MAR | APR | % PT | |
|---|---|---|---|
| % | % | CHANGE | |
| BBC 1 | 32.7 | 31.9 | -0.8 |
| BBC 2 | 9.1 | 11.2 | 2.1 |
| TOTAL BBC | 41.8 | 43.1 | 1.3 |
| ITV | 39.8 | 39.5 | -0.3 |
| C4/S4C | 11.3 | 10.4 | -0.9 |
| TOTAL ITV | 51.1 | 49.9 | -1.2 |
| OTHERS | 7.1 | 7 | -0.1 |
INDUSTRY NEWS
April saw the battle over the third episode of Eastenders; ITV, worried that Monday night audiences would not return to ITV for the rest of the evening after watching BBC’s Eastenders, tried various spoiler tactics, ranging from a Bond film to a one hour long Coronation Street. Viewing figures showed that ITV won the battle.
The ITC issued a further statement on TV sales limits, covering the outstanding issues from the previous statement; it ruled that it would only allow flexibility of the 25% ruling among the smaller companies, on a case-by- case basis. It did however, mention that it would reconsider the Time Exchange and Laser sales situation, should the Secretary of State modify their terms.
The Channel 5 debate continued, with a decision expected from the Government on whether the spare frequencies should be used for C5; this decision was however delayed until next month. Several new consortiums came forward as willing to bid should it be re-advertised; Virgin, and a consortium of MAI, Pearson and Time Warner.
SURVEYS
The Media Audits Annual Survey on Advertiser Opinions showed that 85% of advertisers feel that ITV mergers are not in the advertisers’ interest. They are also not happy about the value they get from television; only 28% believe station average price is a reliable source of measurement. With regard to quality of programming, advertisers thought that ITV programmes had declined, with the exception of soaps; C4 programmes however, were applauded.
The GfK Satellite Monitor released in April, showed that satellite ownership is going more upmarket. However, there remains a strong mass market bias among satellite owners, with C2s indexing at 135 against C2s in the country as a whole.
The ITC published its annual survey on programming standards, The Public’s View; one of the things this showed was that the 9pm watershed seems to be working. Viewers are also generally happy with the service; only 1% found that programmes on ITV were worse than in 1992.