TV Market Round-Up – March 2009

The difficult economic conditions are still having an effect on the television market, with all stations recording year on year falls in revenue intake.

The worst hit was Channel 4, with revenue down 23.7% on March 2008. The next biggest slump came from commercial network ITV1, with a decrease of 23.4% (to stand at £87.6 million).

Finally, the youngest of the terrestrial commercial broadcasters, Five, saw its monthly revenues reduce by 22.3% against 2008’s total.

Total Satellite’s revenue total decreased by 18.5% compared to March 2008’s figures, standing at £78.54 million.

ITV Franchises

According to our agency estimates, Carlton remains the greatest share provider of ITV1 revenue. The London weekday franchise area accounted for 15.27% of the network’s revenue, up by 0.18 percentage points year on year

Following closely behind was Central, which was responsible for 15.04%. The Midlands franchise area saw its share fall by 0.63 percentage points compared to March 2008.

Westcountry provided the smallest share of ITV1’s revenue, with 2.03% of the network’s total income, down 0.01 percentage points on last year’s figures.

All of ITV1’s costs per thousands were cheaper amongst our featured audiences for March 2009. The audience with the greatest year on year decrease was Housewives with Children, down by 20.8% to cost £38.38.

Similarly to ITV1, Channel 4 had across the board decreases for our featured audiences. Once again it was Housewives with Children that fell the most in price, down by 29.4% to cost £36.20.

As was the case with the other two terrestrial broadcasters, Five’s CPT price fell amongst featured our audiences. The biggest decrease came from Housewives, 18.8% cheaper when compared to March 2008.

All of our featured audiences fell for ITV1 amongst commercial impacts. The worst performance can from the Men audience, slipping by 11.4% on March 2008’s total.

Channel 4 had a mixed month, with impacts falling for half of our featured audiences during March 2008. The audience that increased most year on year was Housewives with Children, which rose by 8%.

Five’s commercial impacts fell across all of our featured audiences during March 2009. The biggest drop was seen amongst ABC1 Adults, down by 7.9% year on year.

Only two of our featured audiences improved on their previous year’s figures for Total Broadcast, Women and ABC1 Adults (both audiences increasing 0.6% year on year).