Television Viewing Round-Up – August 2006

All terrestrial broadcasters other than BBC One suffered a fall in viewing share over August year on year, with ITV1 faring worst in all TV homes and Channel 4 in digital homes.

BBC One had a relatively static month in all TV homes, with a slight increase in share. Meanwhile in digital homes it saw its share rise by 1.5% points.

August saw ITV1 face a further 2.2% point fall year on year, taking the channel’s share to 17% in all television homes. X Factor returned towards the end of the month, bringing viewers back to the troubled channel on a Saturday night (see X Factor’s Return Gives Much Needed Boost To ITV1).

In addition the end of Big Brother on Channel 4 created additional interest in ITV1’s Love Island, which saw its viewing increase for the last week of transmission (see Love Island’s Conclusion Pulls Biggest TV Audience Of Series).

Even considering August saw the end of Big Brother (see NewsLine), Channel 4 saw a 2% point fall year on year in its viewing share, as it dipped down to just under 10%.

BBC One was the only terrestrial channel to show any rise in viewing share, with a minor increase of 0.5% points year on year, taking its share to just over 22%.

Multichannel viewing increased by nearly 6% points year on year as the popularity of digital TV grows.

In a similar picture to all television viewing, only BBC One had anything positive to shout about, with a 1.5% point increase in share year on year, taking its share to over 19%.

BBC Two, ITV1 and Five all suffered slight dips in share of 0.4% points, 0.8% points and 0.4% points respectively, keeping all shares relatively static.

Channel 4 suffered the greatest slide during August, with a drop in viewing share of 1.7% points year on year, taking its share to just over 8%.

BBC One continued to demand the highest viewing share amongst the terrestrial channels in both Sky and Freeview homes, with a share of 16.1% in Sky homes and 24.2% in Freeview homes.

Multichannel continues to be the most popular channel option, with viewing share of these digital channels at 55.0% in Sky homes and 32.2% in Freeview homes, with the difference due to the smaller channel choice available on Freeview.

Data to form this report can be found in the Television database on mediatel.co.uk within the “Weekly – Analysis by Platform” section. For any assistance please contact the helpdesk on 020 7439 7575.

BARB: www.barb.co.uk