TV Round-Up – 1997

Revenue

ITV’s struggle to redress a significant decline in viewing figures has been well-documented and much-discussed over the previous year and new chief executive Richard Eyre unveiled plans to address the Network’s problems at the beginning of January. However the loss of viewers, as far as 1997 is concerned, has resulted in only the slightest increase in revenue year on year: revenue was up 1.5% from £1.66bn to £1.68bn. Channel 4 managed an overall revenue increase of 4.9%, which is a drop on the 10% increase the channel attained from ’95 to ’96. Channel 4’s revenue rose from approximately £489m to £513m.

ITV’s revenue only managed either a slight increase or an actual loss in revenue for all but two months of the year: March and September. These months achieved significant increases in revenue year on year of 11.4% and 10.6% respectively.

1997 ITV Revenues

1997 Channel 4 Revenues

The ITV franchise companies saw little change in their share of revenue year on year with all changes falling within +/-1% points change on 1996. The biggest loss fell to Anglia which was down 0.61% points year on year, its revenue share falling from 7.9% to 7.3%. Carlton saw the biggest growth in revenue share taking 16.64% of all Network revenue; this represents a 0.36% points increase year on year.

Average Share Of Revenue By ITV Franchise

The ITV companies’ share of revenue can be seen in the chart below; Carlton, Central and Meridian currently receive the three biggest slices of the ‘revenue pie’.

Channel 5’s first nine months attracted a total revenue of £84m between April and December 1997, with its largest figure of 11 million being achieved in both May and November. Channel 5 suffered from its lowest figure in the traditional ‘drought’ area of mid-summer, notably August.

1997 Channel 5 Revenues

Costs Per Thousand

CPT rose across all categories year on year, with the greatest increase falling in the Housewives with Children group. The CPT for this group on ITV/Channel 4 combined rose 9.9% from 3,833p to 4,212p. The CPT for Men also saw a large rise of 8.56% to 1,693p.

Average CPT ITV/Channel 4 Combined

The Channel 5 CPT table below shows an average taken across the months April to December 1997. Channel 5 CPT are lower in all categories than ITV/Channel 4.

Average CPT Channel 5 (Apr-Dec 1997)

Impacts

Average impacts for 1997 fell across all categories year on year, mirroring the year on year changes between 1995 and 1996. The Housewives with Children category showed the greatest drop again, falling 7.71% from 5,729 to 5,287. The smallest decrease for impacts was again with Women which fall 3.37% from 14,056 to 13,187. the following data represents ITV and Channel 4 combined.

Average Impacts ITV/Channel Combined

Viewing Share

The overriding trend in viewing share between 1996 and 1997 is that every terrestrial broadcaster in virtually all categories has lost viewing share; satellite and cable’s viewing share has increased accordingly across all categories. The most marked increase for the ‘Others’ category is in attaining child viewers. The viewing for Children on satellite/cable was up 27% points year on year; Housewives with Children saw a similar 24% points year on year rise.

The only terrestrial channels to see any increase in viewing share were BBC 2 and Channel 4. Mirroring satellite and cable, BBC 2 managed to increase its share of child viewers by just under 12% points and its Housewives with Children viewers by 2.2% points.

Channel 4/S4C achieved the only other increase in the terrestrials’ viewing in the ABC1 adults category, which was up 0.7% points.

Nevertheless, ITV still managed to hold on to the majority overall viewing share for Individuals with 32.7%; BBC 1 commanded an average Individuals viewing share of 30.6% for the year. These shares both represent year on year falls: ITV down 6.8% points, the BBC losing 5.96% points.

As mentioned earlier, the greatest loss of viewing was suffered by ITV, and was the result of children deserting the channel for BBC 2 and satellite/cable, to the measure of a loss of 13.94% points. The smallest loss for all Individuals was managed by BBC 2 which only dropped 0.32% points.

1997 Average Annual Viewing Share

Viewing Share % Point Change YoY

In its first nine months, Channel 5 has attained a rough of average of 3% viewing share across all categories. The Individuals category gives the channel a 2.9% viewing share. Channel 5’s largest audience at present is with men from which the channel takes a 3.1% viewing share.

In terms of viewing minutes both ITV and BBC 1 fared pretty much the same, losing 6.4% and 6.3% of Individuals’ viewing time respectively. As with viewing share, the terrestrial channels all suffered losses in nearly all categories, while the cable and satellite gained minutes viewing across the board. The exceptions again are with BBC 2/Children and Channel 4/ABC1 Adults.

Amongst ABC1 Adults BBC 1 was watched on average for one hour a week longer than ITV. ITV, however, held on to the majority of women viewers who watched ITV for an average of 10 hours 18 minutes a week compared with 8 hours 55 minutes of BBC 1. The longest overall viewing was for ITV from women who watched the channel for an average of 10 hours 42 minutes per week.

Channel 5 did not managed to reach an average viewing time of over an hour for any category; it was watched longest by Housewives for an average of 56 minutes.

Cable and satellite increased viewing time in all categories, again the highest being Children who watched for an average of 3 hours 41 minutes a week, an increase of 26.3% year on year.

Average Minutes Viewing Time Per Week

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