TV Market Round-Up – July 2006

July proved to be a torrid month for the terrestrial broadcasters, particularly for ITV1 which saw its revenues plummet by 27.4% year on year, even considering that July saw the conclusion to the World Cup followed by the second series of Love Island.

With revenues of just £85 million, and now a departing chief executive (see ITV Chief Executive Could Exit), ITV1 must be wondering what it should do next to try and stem the decline at the channel. It was beaten consistently in the ratings throughout the month, with the challenges offered by BBC One with the World Cup and Channel 4 with Big Brother proving too strong.

Elsewhere, Channel 4 also saw its revenues slide by a significant 11.6% year on year, leaving the broadcaster with £45.5 million for the month. However, its summer mainstay continued to be the talk of water-coolers everywhere, as it regularly trumped the competition in the ratings (see Big Brother Beats Love Island).

Meanwhile, both Five and GMTV also suffered revenue falls of nearly 6% and 8% respectively, meaning that the overall terrestrial market lost over 20% of its revenue year on year.

ITV Franchises

Yorkshire/North East saw the greatest increase in its share of ITV Revenue, rising 0.6% points to 10.8% share.

By comparison, LWT saw the greatest fall in share, down to 11.1% share, a fall of 1.8% points year on year.

Continuing the trend from last month, Central provided the largest share of ITV’s revenue, at 16.2%, and West Country provided the smallest share at 2.2%.

Through poor impacts and low revenue, ITV1 saw its costs per thousands fall during July year on year, with Housewives with Children dropping by nearly 15%, while the other featured audience all declined by between 8% and 11%.

Channel 4 also saw its CPTs drop in July, and with steeper declines than ITV1. Women, Housewives and Housewives with Children all dropped by between 16% and 19%, but Men only fell by 2.5% year on year. The hefty declines meant that the channel was slightly cheaper than Five for Housewives with Children and ABC1 Adults.

By comparison, Five saw all of its prices rise during July, with Men rising by the highest percentage to £10.07.

Both ITV1 and Five saw their impacts fall across all our featured audiences, with ITV1 faring worst, with most audiences falling by at least 19% year on year. Housewives with Children fell by the smallest margin, but still by 14.7%.

Meanwhile, Channel 4’s impacts fell for both Men and, to a very slight degree, ABC1 Adults, probably due to the World Cup running for the first nine days of the month. By comparison, the broadcaster saw increases across the more female-orientated audiences, propelled in part by Big Brother‘s success.

Satellite saw its impacts rise across all the featured audiences, with Housewives increasing by the greatest percentage, at 14% year on year, followed by Women at 13.1%.

BARB: www.barb.co.uk