Television Round-Up – January
TV Revenue
Combined ITV/C4 revenue for January, based on agency estimates, came in at £161.98 million, an increase of 6% on last January’s figure, and up 3.9% on December. ITV’s share was 78%, or £126.8 million; C4 took £35.2m, or 22%. This represented a better month for ITV; in December C4’s share of revenue had crept up to 24%. C4’s performance year on year was better by 14%; ITV’s improved by 3.9%.
Amongst the contractors, Carlton fared quite badly compared to last year; at 16.55% share this was down 0.55% points on last January, despite having an extra trading day. LWT however, increased its share to 11.96%, up 0.48% pts. Carlton also lost out quite badly to LWT in December, when LWT took 12.4% and Carlton took just 14.65% share, its lowest share of all 1995.
Central lost 0.53% points, whilst YTTV gained 0.56% points; however amongst the remaining contractors, there was very little movement year on year.
Contractor Share Of Revenue
| Jan-95 | Jan-96 | % Pt Chge | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carlton | 17.1 | 16.55 | -0.55 |
| LWT | 11.48 | 11.96 | 0.48 |
| London | 28.58 | 28.51 | -0.07 |
| Central | 16.06 | 15.53 | -0.53 |
| Granada/Border | 11.02 | 10.94 | -0.08 |
| YTTV | 10.06 | 10.62 | 0.56 |
| STV | 4.81 | 4.82 | 0.01 |
| Grampian | 1.11 | 1.12 | 0.01 |
| HTV | 6.1 | 5.84 | -0.26 |
| Meridian | 11.06 | 11.19 | 0.13 |
| Anglia | 7.11 | 7.18 | 0.07 |
| Westcountry | 2.22 | 2.37 | 0.15 |
| Ulster | 1.88 | 1.88 | 0 |
Messages
Network messages for January were down across the board, the biggest decrease coming from the Housewives with Children audience. Channel 4’s messages were up across the board, with their biggest increase for the month coming from ABC1s. Despite Channel 4’s increases, combined ITV/C4 messages were down across the board, the biggest fall from Women and Housewives with Children.
Costs Per Thousand
With combined ITV/C4 revenue up by around 6% this January, and messages down, costs per thousand rose by between 6 and 9% across the board, with the highest increase coming from Housewives with Children, up 9.9% year on year.
| Hwvs | Adlts | Men | Women | Hwvs/Chld | ABC1s | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Combined ITV/C4 Messages | 26034 | 42621 | 16865 | 25756 | 7036 | 16093 |
| % Ch YoY | -2.1 | -2.8 | -2.1 | -3.3 | -3.6 | -0.5 |
| Hwives | Adts | Men | Wmn | H/W&Ch | ABC1Adts | |
| Combined ITV/C4 CPTS | 754 | 461 | 1164 | 762 | 2790 | 1220 |
| %ChYoY | 8.2 | 9 | 8.2 | 9.5 | 9.9 | 6.5 |
TV Viewing
Television viewing for January showed a big change from December’s Xmas trends; BBC1 dropped 2.6% share of viewing, from 35% to 32.4%; BBC2 also lost share, whereas ITV, C4 and others all bettered December’s share. However, compared to last January’s viewing, ITV’s share this year of 36.6% is significantly down on last year’s of 39.3%. It was the cable/satellite channels which have really improved performance, improving from 7.5% last January to 9.1% this year.
| Individuals share of viewing | Jan-96 | Dec-95 | Jan-95 |
|---|---|---|---|
| BBC1 | 32.40% | 35.00% | 32.50% |
| BBC2 | 11.20% | 11.50% | 10.40% |
| ITV | 36.60% | 35.10% | 39.30% |
| C4 | 10.70% | 9.60% | 10.20% |
| OTHERS | 9.10% | 8.80% | 7.50% |
ITV’s most successful programme of the month, excluding Coronation Street, was A Touch of Frost, which regularly attracted over 17 million viewers each Sunday night; this managed to beat all other soap operas and dramas each week. BBC1’s best performing programme in terms of audience, excluding soaps, was Antiques Roadshow.
Industry News
January saw the climax of the row over the Channel 5 licence; at Virgin’s hearing, the high Court ruled in favour of the ITC’s decision. SelecTV was bought by Pearson, whilst Carlton bought SelecTV’s cable channel. Optimistic news for the cable and satellite industries in January; according to BARB figures, cable sales grew at treble the rate of dish sales; overall cable and satellite penetration was up by 16%. GfK figures showed dish ownership up to 3.3 million. However, there was a row between UK Gold and the contractor Videotron over pricing/packages.
Research released in January from Abbott Mead Vickers.BBDO into the future of television eased fears when it concluded that the ability to reach viewers “en masse” would not be lost in the future. Advances in technology would not happen quicker than the ability of ad agencies to respond to them. MBS also released some research, into children from which it emerged that the favourite programme of boys aged 6-11 is one which is transmitted after the 9pm watershed, Bottom. Neighbours was the overall top programme for boys and girls, followed by Eastenders, Home & Away and The Bill.
In sports, the BBC beat Murdoch to rights to coverage of the next three Olympics, and both BBC1 and ITV announced details of the fixture list for the Euro’96 Football coverage.