TV Market Round-Up – October 2006

October saw a continuation of the downward trend for television revenue, with combined revenues falling by nearly 17% across terrestrial channels.

GMTV was the worst hit, as the broadcaster saw its revenues fall by nearly 24% year on year, down from £6.8 million to nearly £5.2 million for the month.

ITV1 also had a poor month, with revenues falling by nearly £37 million year on year for October, a 20.9% drop, leaving the broadcaster with just under £140 million. Over the month rumours were rife as to who would replace chief executive Charles Allen, with names including Michael Jackson, Roger Parry and Stephen Carter linked with the high profile position (see ITV Could Get Carter).

Five fared best for the month, with revenues remaining relatively static, dropping just 0.9% year on year, while Channel 4 dropped by nearly 12%.

Revenues for satellite channels during the month increased year on year by 15.8% as more advertising money is invested into digital broadcasters.

ITV Franchises

Central continues to be the ITV franchise area providing the lions’ share of ITV1’s revenue, at 16.6%, in a similar trend to last October.

Carlton and LWT both saw dips in share of 0.6% points and 0.5% points respectively year on year.

West Country continued to provide the smallest share of revenue at just 2.0%.

Five saw all its CPTs for our featured audiences increase year on year during October by at least 13%. Housewives with Children and ABC1 Adults had the greatest increases, up by 18.2% and 18.8% respectively.

By contrast, all ITV1’s CPTs dropped year on year by at least 10%. A similar picture could be seen at Channel 4, where CPTs fell for all featured audiences, except ABC1 Adults which remained static.

ITV1 saw its impacts fall during October year on year across all our featured audiences, even considering some strong programming during the month, including the return of dramas Cracker and Prime Suspect (see 7.6 Million Adults Tune In To Prime Suspect Farewell).

Five had a similar pattern to ITV1, with impacts falling at least 12% year on year for our featured audiences, with ABC1 Adults faring worst with a 16.6% fall.

Meanwhile, Channel 4 had a mixed month, with impacts falling for Men and ABC1 Adults, while Women and Housewives both increased by around 3% year on year.

Satellite impacts continued to rise, however Housewives with Children only increased by 1.5% year on year, which is much lower than the other audiences which all rose by a minimum of 7%.

The overall picture for the month shows that total broadcast impacts were slightly down across most of our audiences, with only Women remaining static year on year.

BARB: www.barb.co.uk