Television Viewing Round-Up – October 2007

ITV1 was the only terrestrial channel to see an upturn in its viewing share in all homes for October 2007, largely bolstered by the Rugby World Cup, whilst multichannel options continued to increase their share.

ITV1 added 0.6 percentage points to its total year on year, whilst Channel 4 recorded the largest slide, of 1.5 percentage points. BBC One saw a marginal fall of 0.1 percentage points.

ITV1’s viewing share rose to 20.9% for October 2007, up from 20.2% in the same period the previous year.

The Rugby World Cup provided a much-needed boost to the station, with millions tuning in to matches to watch England power through to the finals.

Champions League football (see Fry Brings 2.4 Million To BBC Two) and some big 9pm dramas (see 4.8 Million Adults Watch ITV1’s Torn), also bumped up the ratings.

Other big winners included the Pride of Britain awards (see More Than Six Million Show Pride In ITV), and Doc Martin, which boasted an impressive 7.8 million adult viewers on average (a 36.9% share of the audience) on 9 October (see Doc Martin Dominates At 9pm).

BBC One saw the smallest decline in viewing share of the terrestrial channels for the month, down 0.1 percentage points year on year to 22.1% for October.

Big series like genealogy hit Who Do You Think You Are? (see Who Do You Think You Are? Continues To Bring In The Viewers), Michael Palin’s New Europe (see Almost Six Million Stick With Palin’s Adventures), and the return of Spooks (see Return Of The Spooks Lures 5.8 Million) and Strictly Come Dancing kept ratings afloat for the BBC’s flagship, whilst the channel found itself without a controller following Peter Fincham’s departure after the ‘Crowngate’ saga (see Fincham Quits Following Queen Doco Shocker).

BBC Two’s viewing share was down year on year by 0.5 percentage points, despite the return of popular entrepreneurial programme, Dragon’s Den (see Three Million Adults Enter The Dragons’ Den).

The station reports a viewing share of 8.2%, compared to the 8.7% share it held in the same month in 2006.

The most significant fall in viewing share was recorded by Channel 4, which lost 1.5 percentage points to take its share to 7.3%. In October the previous year, the channel’s share was 8.7%. After a month of fairly unremarkable programming, C4 holds a smaller viewing share than BBC Two for October.

Meanwhile, Five dropped 0.5 percentage points for the month year on year, taking its share to 5%.

Other channels, however, continued to improve, pushing their share up to 36.2%, equating to year on year growth of 1.5 percentage points.

October saw the digital switchover begin in earnest (see Digital Switchover Begins Today), and BBC One, BBC Two and ITV1 all bolstered their viewing share in digital homes.

BBC One narrowly held on to the greatest share of the terrestrial channels in digital homes in October, up 0.6 percentage points year on year to almost 20%, with ITV1 following at 19.5%, up from almost 18.5% in 2006.

BBC Two’s share remained fairly static at almost 7%, meaning it has overtaken Channel 4’s share in digital homes for October, which stands at 6.2% following a slide of 0.9 percentage points.

Five’s share fell by 0.2 percentage points year on year for the month, now standing at 4.6%. Other channels also dropped, by 1.2 percentage points, but retain their dominance with a 42.4% share.

BBC One once again retained its position as the most popular terrestrial channel in Freeview homes, with a 23.3% share in Freeview homes in October.

However, its share in Sky homes now stands at 17.2%, as does ITV1’s share. ITV1 holds a share of 21.6% in Freeview homes for the month.

Multichannel options continued their dominance, remaining the most popular channel choice in both Freeview and Sky homes. Viewing share of these digital channels is 51.5% in Sky homes and almost 33% 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