TV Market Round Up – November 2010

Total television revenues were up across the board in November, with no exceptions.

Channel 5 posted its first revenue increase since July. The broadcaster, now owned and run by Richard Desmond, enjoyed a 6.1% YoY boost in November – a positive change from the 5% decline it suffered in October.

Desmond has made several changes since acquiring Channel 5 from RTL for £104 million in July/August 2010. In a bid to make savings of around £20 million, he cut seven of the nine executive board directors.

The Northern & Shell owner has recruited his own team, including Nick Bampton, who has joined as commercial sales director. Today, Channel 5 announced a number of new appointments to Bampton’s trading team, including two of his former colleagues Ross Belcher and Agostino Di Falco.

The appointments will see a restructure of Channel 5’s sales team and the creation of a new marketing partnership division. Speaking about the changes, Bampton said: “Channel 5 has had to weather considerable change over the last 2 years. Today, is the start of something new. The commercial team now have in place the right people, the right tools and focus to achieve much more to enhance our relationships with media agencies and advertisers.”

Channel 4 also put in a good performance in November, recording a 15% increase, as did ITV1 and ITV Breakfast. ITV’s new CEO Adam Crozier, who has also made considerable changes in a bid to improve the commercial broadcaster’s fortunes after a tough few years – most recently with the departure of group commercial sales director Gary Digby – will be pleased with the pre-Christmas numbers. ITV1 enjoyed a 10.6% rise, while ITV Breakfast posted a 13.9% increase in revenues.

Overall, total terrestrial revenue was up 11.4%, while total satellite was up 13.5% in November.

ITV Franchises

Costs Per Thousand

Commercial Impacts

TV market data is available in mediatel.co.uk’s TV Database.