TV Market Round-Up – September 2009

There appears to be no immediate let-up in the difficult times for commercial stations, with September figures showing revenue intake falling across the board for the ninth month in succession.

Despite drawing in big audiences for new US hit FlashForward Five suffered the biggest year on year fall. Commercial revenues decreased by 28.8% to stand at just over £18 million.

The second worst performance was recorded by Channel 4, which announced that chief executive Andy Duncan is to step down before the end of the year. During September the station took in £45.9 million worth of commercial revenue, compared to £54.5 million for the same period in 2008.

The picture was slightly better for ITV1 network and breakfast station GMTV, which posted year on year falls below 10% (8.9% and 6.5% respectively).

ITV Franchises

Six ITV franchises provided revenue share of 10% or more, with Midlands holder Central posting the highest with 15.29%. This was despite shedding 0.79 percentage points year on year.

The best year on year improvement came from North West/Border region, rising 0.82 percentage points on September 2008’s total.

Maintaining its position as the network’s smallest share provider, West Country accounted for a 1.98% share of the overall ITV1 revenue.

Costs Per Thousand

Five’s CPT price fell across all our featured audiences by at least 22% this month, making the channel significantly cheaper for advertisers. The price of Housewives with Children decreased the most, costing 30.9% less year on year.

Things were not as bad for ITV1, despite also having across the board reductions in CPT price. Housewives with Children was also the biggest decrease for the commercial network, down by 12% on September 2008’s price.

Keeping up the trend among the terrestrial broadcaster, Channel 4 similarly was cheaper for all our featured audiences during September. This time ABC1 Adults decreased the most, down by 13% to stand at £16.72.

Commercial Impacts

September was a tough month for Channel 4, with all commercial impacts falling for MediaTel’s featured audiences. The worst affected audience was Housewives down by 7.4% on last year’s figures.

ITV1 had mixed fortunes this month, with all but two of our featured audiences increasing their impacts year on year. The best performing audience was Housewives with Children, improving by 3.5% on September 2008.

Five’s commercial impacts only increased for one of our featured audiences this month. The station increased Housewives with Children impacts by 3.1% year on year, whilst all the other audiences fell by at least 6%.

Total Broadcast commercial impacts were up for all audience year on year, with a four-way tie between Men, Housewives, Housewives with Children and ABC1 Adults (all up by 2.3%).