TV Market Round-Up – August 2006

August brought continued declines in revenue for ITV1, as the broadcaster felt a 10% drop year on year, ending the month with nearly £93 million. For the period January to August 2006, ITV1 is down over £103 million in revenues versus the same period last year.

Channel 4 meanwhile remained relatively static, with a slight increase year on year, keeping revenues around £47 million for the month.

Speaking at this year’s MGEITF, Charles Allen heavily criticised Channel 4, saying the broadcaster may need a fundamental remodelling of its structure to bring it in line with its commercial competitors (see MGEITF 2006: Allen Uses MacTaggart To Criticise Channel 4).

Five saw a lift year on year of 3.1%, with £20.3 million in revenues. The broadcaster revealed its new season line up in August, together with the launch dates in mid-October of its two digital offerings, Five US and Five Life (see Five Unveils Autumn Lineup), with Nick Thorogood announced as controller (see Five Announces Controller For New Digital Channels).

Satellite channels saw their revenues continue to increase, with figures up by 13.3% year on year.

ITV Franchises

Central received the largest increase in revenue across the ITV franchise areas in August, adding 1.2% point onto last year’s share, contributing the largest share of ITV’s revenue at 17.2%.

LWT saw the largest downturn in revenue share, losing 1.6% points year on year to contribute 9.9%, while the West Country remained the smallest contributor at 2.2%.

ITV1 saw its CPTs for our featured audiences mainly decrease in August year on year. Men and ABC1 Adults were the only exceptions, which increased by 2.4% and 1.3% respectively. Housewives with Children had the greatest fall at 11.3% year on year to £50.09.

Channel 4, meanwhile, saw CPT decreases for both Women and Housewives with Children, whilst Men rose by 37% year on year to £16.40.

Five continued to have the cheapest terrestrial CPTs, even though all our featured audiences showed CPT increases for the broadcaster, ranging from 10.7% up for ABC1 Adults to 24.9% up for Housewives with Children.

ITV1 saw impacts fall across all our featured audiences during August, except for Housewives with Children which remained relatively static, with a 0.7% increase. Meanwhile, the other audiences all suffered falls of between 9% and nearly 13% year on year, with Men faring worst at 12.7% down.

Channel 4 suffered a large drop in Men impacts during August, which fell by 26.5% year on year. Only two of our featured audiences saw their impacts increase year on year; Women increased by 7.5% and Housewives with Children rose by 12.3%.

Five was the main casualty of the month, with impacts for all featured audiences falling. Housewives with Children fell by the greatest percentage, 17.4%, with the others falling by between 6.8% and 12.4%.

Satellite impacts were all up, with most featured audiences up by over 20%, except for Housewives with Children which rose by 11.9%.

Overall, August saw impacts increase for all our featured audiences other than Men which fell by 1.9%. Housewives with Children saw the greatest increase, at 5.8% year on year.

BARB: www.barb.co.uk