Television Viewing Round-Up – April 2006

April saw viewing share fall across the terrestrial channels in all TV homes year on year, with ITV’s viewing share dropping below 20%.

In digital homes, BBC One, BBC Two and Channel 4 all saw slight increases in viewing share, whilst multichannel’s share of viewing continued to rise.

Following the trend of previous months, ITV’s share of viewing dropped by 1.9% points year on year along with BBC One, which fell by 1.3% points. After a poor showing in the ratings during April, the BBC decided to drop high profile chat show Davina, but promised to work with the Big Brother presenter again in the future (see BBC Drops Davina After Dismal Chat Debut).

Meanwhile, BBC Two and Channel 4 both remained relatively stable, with very slight slips in share compared to last April.

Multichannel offerings continued to increase its viewing share, up by 4.5% points year on year, at a 33.3% overall viewing share. Sky One’s screening of the long-awaited Simpsons episode written by Ricky Gervais in April brought a ratings high to the channel, drawing 1.5 million adults (see Gervais-Penned Simpsons Scores Ratings Hit For Sky).

Digital homes saw little change in viewing share year on year, with ITV1 being the only exception. The broadcaster saw its share fall by 1% point on last April, leaving the channel with a 17.3% share.

BBC One, BBC Two and Channel 4 all remained relatively stable year on year, whilst seeing very slight increases in share.

Meanwhile multichannel saw its share increase by 0.8% points, taking nearly 43% viewing share in digital homes, due to the large quantity of channel options available. Sky put its HD service on sale in April, offering consumers in the UK and Ireland the chance to watch HD channels for the first time at a cost of £299 for the box plus an additional £10 per month (see Sky Launches HD Service Next Week).

BBC1 retained its position as the most popular terrestrial channel in both Sky and Freeview homes, with a 24.5% share in Freeview and 16.9% in Sky homes.

Multichannel options continued their dominance, remaining the most popular channel choice in both Freeview and Sky homes. Viewing share of these digital channels is 52.2% in Sky homes and 27.4% in Freeview homes, with the difference due to the smaller channel choice available on Freeview.

BARB: www.barb.co.uk