A recent survey into television news viewing by audience research consultants, David Graham Associates, questions the value of BARB figures which quote average nightly viewing of 6.24m for News At Ten. Research suggests that the figure will not represent a true picture of news viewing, given that only a quarter of this figure watch the news for five minutes or more, with three quarters ‘flicking’ after the headlines.
BARB measures audiences on the basis of one minute viewing, the study points out, hence not accounting for the loss of audiences after a period of time. Graham suggests that the amount of viewers would actually drop to 1.6m if it stipulated audiences who watched for five minutes or more. The study narrows down the process even further by stating that the viewer much watch bulletins every night for at least five minutes.
10,000 news viewers were used in the study, in the week ending July 9. Preliminary examination gave the following results;
Watched each day of week for 5 minutes or more
BBC1 Six O’Clock News
338
BBC1 Nine O’Clock News
272
C4 7pm Bulletin
72
ITV News At Ten
321
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