TV Market Round-Up – October 2009

October was another tough month for the commercial television market, with revenue once again down across the board.

Five suffered the largest year on year percentage fall, with commercial revenues down 17.7% to £22.8 million.

There was a 6.3% year on year dip in revenue for ITV1, to £111 million, while Channel 4’s revenue fell to £52.6 million following a 4.6% decline.

Breakfast station GMTV fell slightly, by 0.5% year on year, to £5.8 million.

Last week, ITV took full control of GMTV after securing the remaining 25% equity stake in the business from Disney.

ITV Franchises

Six of the ITV franchise regions provided revenue share of 10% or more, with Central grabbing a share of 15.66%. However, it was down by 0.59 percentage points on last year.

The North West/Border and Yorkshire/North East regions both recorded decent year on year increases, up 0.32 percentage points.

North West/Border now provides a 10.22% share of ITV’s revenue, while Yorkshire/North East provides 10.62%

Costs Per Thousand

Five’s CPT price was down across all our featured audiences by at least 12% in October, with Housewives with Children recording the largest fall, down 20.28% year on year.

ITV1 also saw across the board declines in its CPT price, with the largest decrease once again for the Housewives with Children audience. It was down by 19.3% year on year.

It was a good month for Channel 4 in terms of CPT price, however, with ABC1 adults the only audience to suffer a year on year fall, down 3.83% year on year. The biggest increase was for Housewives with Children, up 6.99% on October 2008.

Commercial Impacts

October saw ITV1 record increases in all of our featured audiences, with the best performance coming from Housewives with Children. It recorded a 16.1% increase on October 2008.

The X Factor continued to do well for the channel in October, with the show consistently outperforming BBC One’s offering, Strictly Come Dancing.

Channel 4’s commercial impacts were down across all of our featured audiences, with Housewives and Children recording the largest year on year decline, of 10.9%.

Five commercial impacts increased for just one of our featured audiences. Housewives with Children was up 3.3% year on year, while the largest decline was for the Women audience, down 6.2%.

Total Broadcast commercial impacts were up across the board. The largest increase was for the Adults audience, up 7.2% year on year.