TV Market Round-Up – March 2007

Revenues took a tumble in March year on year, as each terrestrial commercial broadcaster suffered a fall.

GMTV felt the largest percentage fall as its revenue fell by over 8.5% year on year, ending the month with just under £4.5 million.

ITV1’s revenue woes continued as it shrank by nearly £5.8 million year on year, a drop of 4.7%. The broadcaster signed two new sponsorship deals during the month for their new programmes, Grease is the Word and Deadline (see ITV Unveils Two New Sponsorship Deals).

Both Channel 4 and Five saw similar falls of 2.5% and 2.8% respectively, as Channel 4’s revenues slipped under the £60 million level for the month and Five ended on £24 million. Although Five’s figures were down year on year, it happily celebrated its 10th birthday in March (see Five 10th Birthday – From Sunset Beach To Grey’s Anatomy).

ITV Franchises

Central, at 16.3%, remains the ITV franchise area providing the majority of ITV1’s revenue, increasing by one percentage point year on year.

Carlton saw the largest dip in share, of 1.4% points, whilst LWT saw the greatest increase, of 1.1% points year on year.

West Country once again provided the smallest share of revenue share, at 2.0%.

ITV1’s CPTs all increased for our featured audiences during March year on year, with Men and Housewives with Children both seeing the largest percentage increases, at 4.5% and 4.8% respectively.

Similarly at Five, all CPTs increased for our audiences, with Housewives with Children, ABC1 Adults and Men all increasing by over 13% year on year.

Channel 4 had a similar picture with the exception of ABC1 Adults which fell by 1.1% year on year. The largest increase was seen by Housewives with Children which increased by nearly 12%.

Commercial impacts fell across the board for each terrestrial broadcaster for all our featured audiences. ITV1 saw impacts fall by a minimum of 5% year on year, with Housewives with Children falling by the greatest amount, at over 9%.

Channel 4’s worse performing audience was also Housewives with Children which tumbled by nearly 13% year on year, and similarly for Five, this audience dropped by 16.7%.

By contrast, satellite channels all reported increases in impacts for the featured audiences at over 10% for each, except for Housewives with Children which remained relatively static year on year. The greatest increase was for Women which rose by 16.5% year on year.

Total broadcast impacts were mixed, with only Housewives with Children taking a significant fall of 5.7%. Women showed the greatest increase in impacts, increasing by 1.3% year on year.

BARB: www.barb.co.uk