TV Market Round-Up – May 2006

The overall terrestrial marketplace saw little change in revenue year on year during May. However within this ITV1 and Five experienced the greatest fluctuations.

Five had a great month, seeing its revenue increase by over £3.5 million year on year, a change of 14.6%.

By comparison, ITV1 saw another dip in its revenue, falling by 3.2% to £134 million. Media Planning Group predicted that ITV could face a disappointing shortfall in ad revenue this year if England’s World Cup team fail to perform well in Germany, suggesting the broadcaster could face a dip of between 3% and 5% year on year, equating to £14 million in revenue (see ITV’s Finances Hinge On World Cup Victory).

GMTV also had a fall in revenue year on year but to a less severe extent than ITV1, ending the month 0.8% down year on year.

Satellite broadcasters continued to see their revenues increase, with the channels seeing a 19.8% rise year on year. With Sky preparing for the next stage in digital broadcasting, rumours began in May that a shortage of set top boxes for Sky’s HD service would leave some early adopters unable to enjoy the launch (see Set Top Box Shortage Threatens To Delay Sky HD).

ITV Franchises

HTV saw the greatest increase in its share of ITV Revenue, rising 0.5% points to 6.2% share.

By comparison, LWT saw its share fall by the same amount, down to 11.5% share, a fall of 0.5% points year on year.

Continuing the trend from last month, Central provided the largest share of ITV’s revenue, at 15.9%, and West Country provided the smallest share at 2.1%.

Channel 4 saw all of its CPTs for our featured audiences fall during May year on year, with ABC1 Adults only falling by 5%, but Women and Housewives with Children both falling by around 20%.

ITV1 and Five both saw all their CPTs increase, with Five’s being at a much higher level than ITV1’s.

ITV1 had the largest price increase on Housewives with Children, at 13.1% change year on year, pushing the price up to £61.95. Meanwhile the remaining audiences all increased between 4.6% and 6.9% year on year.

Five’s prices rocketed up by between 20% and 35% year on year during May. The distance between Five’s prices and the other terrestrial broadcasters is narrowing, with the gap only £2 between Channel 4 and Five on both Adults and ABC1 Adults.

ITV1 and Five again both saw their impacts fall across all the featured audiences during May.

ITV1’s impacts all fell by over 7% year on year, with Housewives with Children faring worst with a fall of over 14%.

Meanwhile Five’s impacts dropped by 15% year on year for Housewives with Children, whilst ABC1 Adults only saw a fall of 4.2%.

Elsewhere, Channel 4 had substantial increases in impacts across all the featured audiences, with Housewives with Children increasing by over 30% year on year.

Satellite impacts also continued to increase, as the extra channel choice brought in more viewers.

Overall, total broadcast impacts were all up on last year, with Men and Housewives both seeing the largest increases at 4.7% and 4.6% respectively.

BARB: www.barb.co.uk